Why did Nitish quit I.N.D.I.A?
Nitish Kumar’s U-turn is indeed perplexing, for in the short term, he hasn’t achieved all that much. He was Bihar Chief Minister when he quit the I.N.D.I Alliance and remains Chief Minister after tying up with the BJP. So what was the immediate provocation for backing out? It couldn’t be the fact that the I.N.D.I.A bloc had not made him its Prime Minister face, for even Nitish knows that the chances of an Opposition bloc coming to power and getting a shot at the PM’s chair are zero. Then what could be the provocation? Apparently, one of the points of contention between Nitish and his former allies, especially the RJD, was Lalu Yadav’s insistence that Tejashwi Yadav be given a stint as Chief Minister before the next Assembly elections due in 2025. Nitish did not want that, instead he was very keen to go in for simultaneous polls along with the Lok Sabha. Apparently, he even mooted this idea at a Cabinet meeting, which lasted all of 12 minutes as there were few takers for this proposal. The BJP, however, may agree to this as it can bank on the Modi wave in the state elections as well. Moreover, in the past too the BJP-JDU alliance has worked well for both sides. So much so that the JDU has even managed to keep its Muslim vote-bank intact that believes in Nitish Kumar’s secular credentials despite him tying up with the BJP. If the state goes in for simultaneous polls then Nitish could bargain for a larger chunk of seats for the JDU at the Assembly level and give the BJP a bigger share of the parliamentary seats. However, if the state elections are held later, then the BJP will very likely prop up its own chief ministerial face and edge out Nitish Kumar. Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, an OBC leader, is being groomed to take on the RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav. Well, if that’s what it takes to survive.
Will Mallikarjun Kharge appoint a political advisor?
There is a growing clamour amidst a section of the Congress that is not happy with Team Rahul for the Congress president to assert more authority. One way of doing this could be for Kharge to appoint a political advisor, who could reach out to party leaders and workers on behalf of the Congress chief. Narasimha Rao had a political advisor in Jitendra Prasada when he was party chief, while Tariq Anwar was political advisor to Sitaram Kesri. And of course Ahmed Patel had held that job for eons. Rajiv Gandhi had Jitendra Prasad, while Indira Gandhi had M.L. Fotedar. The role of a political secretary is more of a point person in processing information, soothing ruffled feathers, who cannot get access to the party chief, and providing crucial inputs for inner party meetings. In fact, since Kharge is from the South, he could appoint a political advisor from North or Central India. This is not to say Kharge is bereft of advisors. He has a team of four AICC officials—Syed Nasir Hussain, MP, Pranav Jha, Gurdeep Singh Sappal and Gaurav Pandhi, attached to the office of the Congress president as advisors and coordinators. However, AICC General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal still continues as the de facto trouble-shooter and is the link between Team Rahul and the AICC set-up. It is he who is emerging as the de facto political advisor in the absence of any individual appointed by Kharge for that sole purpose.
Five-Star Leadership
Recently a clip of Avinash Pande, the Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, was seen on social media where the said gentleman was giving a sound-bite to an agency. Only the setting was clearly a hotel bedroom, which led Tehseen Poonawalla to comment that this was precisely what was wrong with the Congress, with senior leaders sitting in four/five stars, while Rahul Gandhi is the only leader who is hitting the ground. In fact, this was also one of the observations made to this writer by the Samajwadi Party leadership the last time they had tied up with the Congress for the 2022 state Assembly polls. As one of the SP leaders told this columnist during one of the joint rallies addressed by both Rahul and Akhilesh, it was only the Samajwadi Party flags that were seen on the ground. The Congress leadership spent most of the time at a local five-star instead of mobilizing Congress workers. In the meanwhile, as a footnote, to quote a TV talking head, Tehseen is fast acquiring the nomenclature of being a “life coach”, given the amount of sermons he is fond of giving on social media. Well, guess that may bring him better returns than just being a Congress sympathiser.
Missing Dr Manmohan Singh
Milind Deora, former UPA minister, two-term Congress MP and once upon a time a close friend of Rahul Gandhi has recently quit the party. He has since given many interviews citing his disillusionment with the Congress and his reasons for leaving; but while speaking to NewsX he made an interesting point. Stating that he considered Dr Manmohan Singh as one of his political mentors, he commented that the Congress did not even bother to celebrate three decades of liberalisation which was ushered in by Dr Singh when he was Finance Minister in 1991. This finds an echo in a glaring lacuna that was noticed by the media when covering the Assam leg of Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Dr Singh was a Rajya Sabha member from Assam when he was both Finance Minister and later Prime Minister; yet when Rahul was in the state recently and praised the connect of former Congress Prime Ministers with the Northeast, he did not mention Dr Singh.