After the shattering Bihar results, a distraught Mallikarjun Kharge urged Sonia Gandhi to speak to her son since he feared INDIA allies were getting increasingly restive. The RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav has made clear that the Congress leader did not pull his weight during the campaign and practically disappeared from the scene after a promising start with motorbike rallies. He could not be reached when major decisions on joint poll strategy were to be taken. Rahul twice left India during the campaign. And was even abroad when the results were declared.
The RJD was furious that the Congress dragged its feet in declaring Tejashwi Yadav as the Mahagathbandhan’s CM candidate. Later, Rahul unilaterally announced Mukesh Sahni, an EBC from the caste-based Vikassheel Insaan Party, as the alliance’s Deputy CM face, angering INDIA’s key vote banks, Muslims and SCs, who felt that someone from their ranks should have been named as a potential Deputy CM. (Incidentally, the much touted Sahani lost the elections and his party drew a blank.) Tejashwi was also embarrassed when Rahul, without consulting him, even though he was sitting next to him, raised the issue of the BJP’s alleged nexus with industrialist billionaires by citing the attendance of party leaders at lavish weddings. Subsequently there were numerous BJP-inspired memes of Lalu’s entire family at Anant Ambani’s over-the-top wedding.
Sonia promised to speak to her son, but misgivings among the INDIA allies that Rahul lacks the the political acumen to lead the Opposition alliance are increasing, buttressed by the recent fracas in the Karnataka Congress. The TMC publicly proclaimed that Mamata Banerjee would be a more suitable choice as leader. SP leader Akhilesh Yadav reportedly spoke to the DMK’s M K Stalin and pointed out the Congress’s embarrassingly dismal performance in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. He felt the grand old party needed a reality check on its actual strength on the ground and that the allies could not keep deferring to its demands simply because it is a national party.
1+0+0 =Success?
The BJP’s electoral strategy for the 2024 Haryana Assembly poll of unifying all non-Jats proved so effective that Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini does not need the support of any Jat-based party for his government’s survival. The Congress fared miserably at the polls under Jat leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda. This has heartened the squabbling descendants of Jat icon Devi Lal, who assume that if Hooda’s star is declining, their clan’s political fortunes are rising. Their optimism was bolstered by a successful Jat rally by INLD president Abhay Chautala on Hooda’s home turf of Rohtak. Abhay’s brother, Ajay, father of former deputy CM Dushyant Chautala and a leader of the splinter JJP party, and uncle Ranjit Chautala, once in the BJP now an independent, proposed to Abhay that if the Devi Lal clan unites, they would have “100 per cent success’’ in reclaiming their lost political glory. The dour Abhay turned down the suggestion remarking snarkily that the 100 per cent calculation was only correct if you appended the zero standing of Ajay and Ranjit, for not supporting the farmers agitation, with his standing of number 1.
Royal Snub
The Congress may be rejoicing over its by-election victory in the Anta Assembly constituency of Rajasthan this month, but surprisingly, Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma remains unruffled, even though Congress proclaims that the result indicates disenchantment with the BJP. Anta is adjacent to Jhalawar, the constituency of former CM Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh, and Vasundhara and her son insisted on overseeing the campaign. After the defeat, she sought an appointment with Amit Shah only to be told to speak to the CM.
No Succession Plan
Home Minister Amit Shah invited to Delhi Sanjay Jha, working president of the JD(U), Lalan Singh, Nitish’s close colleague, and a Bihar bureaucrat who is known to have the ear of the chief minister. Shah raised the delicate question as to whether Nitish had a succession plan in mind in view of his frail health. The politicians kept silent, but the official observed that knowing Nitish, he would expect any such discussion to be on a one-on-one basis directly with Prime Minister Modi.
Family Ties
Interestingly, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress have targeted Parth Pawar, NCP chief Ajit Pawar’s son accused of passing off government land as private property and not paying stamp duty, the opposition NCP led by Sharad Pawar has kept silent. Blood ties perhaps outweigh political differences in such matters. Some of Ajit’s followers even suspect that the Pune land scam story was leaked to a Marathi TV channel by the Shinde camp. Ajit is already unhappy that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has teamed up with Shinde and Ajit kept on the sidelines.
