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INDIA bloc riding on Congress’ guarantees
The Congress Working Committee on Tuesday authorized party president Mallikarjun Kharge to give the manifesto its final shape, which would highlight 25 guarantees for youth, women, farmers, works and social justice
The Congress has a lot at stake if one looks at the larger picture on how the INDIA bloc has built its narrative to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mega push of ‘400 paar’ in the Lok Sabha. While the grand old party looks to rebuild its relevance in the country with the 2024 elections, other members of the opposition camp are either fighting internal discord, or are in ‘damage control’ mode.
Thackeray vs Thackeray
Years ago, an assembly election in Maharashtra threw up possibilities for both the Congress-NCP (then undivided) and the BJP-Shiv Sena (then undivided) to rule the state. Hectic backchannel talks, midnight meetings and surveillance on MLAs had heated up the political scene. Amid all these, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, a wildlife enthusiast, went off to a national park with his camera, only to find his next room occupied by an arch rival – Uddhav Thackeray.
In 2019, Balasaheb Thackeray’s youngest son snapped his party’s age-old tie with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in an alliance. The brand ‘Thackeray’, which is a force to reckon with in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra even today, forced the BJP to recast its alliance arithmetic in India’s most prosperous state.
The Shiv Sena subsequently spilt and the Election Commission handed over the original name and symbol to the faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde. But Uddhav still retained the brand ‘Thackeray’.
Now, to counter Uddhav’s sympathy for his ‘Thackeray’ legacy, the BJP is holding talks with Balasaheb’s nephew Raj Thackeray, who runs the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
While Raj is as good a cartoonist like Balasaheb, the former’s political career outside Sena has been a flop show so far.
“The BJP knows very well that they don’t get votes in the name of PM Narendra Modi in Maharashtra. People vote here in the name of (Bal) Thackeray. This realisation prompted the BJP to try to steal leaders from outside (BJP fold),” Uddhav said.
Last week, Uddhav surprised many by offering a Lok Sabha seat to Union minister Nitin Gadkari.
Gadkari, who has been renominated from Nagpur, didn’t take the offer politely and called Uddhav immature.
Congress Working Committee hailed 25 guarantees
The poll pundits, the opinion polls — everyone has written off the Congress in the upcoming election. But the Congress is still hopeful of winning the election and returning to power even when there is doubt if it can retain the seats it won last time.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge told his party leaders on Tuesday, in what was the last CWC meeting before the elections, that the PM Modi’s guarantees will suffer the same fate as the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s ‘India Shining’ campaign of 2004.
‘India Shining’ was a key slogan of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in the run up to the 2004 general elections, but it failed to capture the discontent on the ground and Vajpayee lost the polls. Kharge’s comments assume importance as ‘Modi’s guarantees’ are one of the key planks of the ruling BJP in this election.
The CWC also authorized Kharge to give the manifesto its final shape, which would highlight the 25 guarantees for youth, women, farmers, works and social justice.
EC removes second DGP in West Bengal
The news from West Bengal at this stage (before the campaign kicks in) doesn’t look good for the ruling Trinamool Congress.
The Election Commission changed two DGPs in as many days in the state. Sanjay Mukherjee replaced 1988-batch officer Vivek Sahay, who was serving as director general (home guard) and was appointed as the new DGP on Monday afternoon after Rajeev Kumar, who was appointed by the state government in December last year, was removed from the post by ECI.
On Monday, the ECI removed or transferred West Bengal’s DGP, the home secretaries of six states, and the head of the Mumbai corporation as part of its effort to ensure free and fair polls. ECI officials said the transferred officers were holding dual charges with one in the office of chief minister which would have potentially seemed to “compromise impartiality and neutrality” required during the electoral process.
Meanwhile, trouble is mounting for TMC firebrand former MP Mahua Moitra. While Moitra has been given a ticket to fight the 2024 election, The Lokpal, the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, on Tuesday ordered a formal Central Bureau of Investigation probe against the Trinamool Congress leader in cash-for-query charges, saying there is “sufficient prima facie evidence (against the former member of parliament) on record that deserves deeper scrutiny”.
