Will Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contest the Lok Sabha election?
After the Congress has distributed its Rajya Sabha seats, the speculation now is whether Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be contesting the Lok Sabha or not. There are two reasons for this. One is that she was kept out of the Rajya Sabha list, which saw Sonia Gandhi being nominated from Rajasthan. This means that the Lok Sabha seat of Rae Bareli, the only bastion the Congress has in UP, is now vacant. Will Priyanka take up this mantle, for she has been handling the constituency on her mother’s behalf. However, Congress sources claim that Priyanka will not be the candidate from Rae Bareli. If she does contest the Lok Sabha at all, it could be from the South. But the way things, stand do not be surprised if Priyanka stays out of electoral politics. However, given the fact that she is yet to be assigned a portfolio of duties along with her responsibility, one wonders as to what role the Gandhis have in mind for Priyanka, who still remains one of the party’s most charismatic faces on the campaign trail.
Will it be Rajeev Chandrasekhar vs Shashi Tharoor in Kerala?
There is some speculation within the BJP that the Prime Minister wants to build his team at the state level and will field some of the faces he wants to promote in the Lok Sabha. If they fail to win then the Rajya Sabha route is always there, for the BJP is not short of Rajya Sabha seats. Hence Dharmendra Pradhan could be fielded from Odisha, and there is talk of Bhupendra Yadav contesting from either Rajasthan or Bhiwani in Haryana. In addition, the BJP is keen to expand its footprint in the South, especially in Telangana and Kerala. Two Union Ministers, V. Muraleedharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar could be fielded from Kerala, with the possibility of the former being asked to contest from Attingal and the latter from Thiruvananthapuram. In fact, the twist here may not be the BJP’s candidate as much as Tharoor’s own candidature; for though the Congress leader has won this seat as many as three times for his party, he doesn’t have the support of K.C. Venugopal, the all-powerful General Secretary (Organisation). Watch this space.
Who is running the Congress?
While Mallikarjun Kharge is the Congress president, it is clear that he is not in the driver’s seat. The remote still remains with Team Rahul, even more so now with Sonia Gandhi taking a back seat, while Priyanka has been designated the role of a passenger. And while Rahul Gandhi is the decision maker, the execution is carried out by his troika, led by his favourite general secretary, K.C. Venugopal, along with Randeep Surjewala and Ajay Maken. There are some others who have access to Rahul, such as Jairam Ramesh, who heads the party’s communications department. All are Rajya Sabha members, and this is in keeping with tradition; for erstwhile advisors to the Gandhis have also been (mostly) rooted in the Rajya Sabha.