I.N.D.I.A Bloc Versus Congress
There is tremendous pressure from the rest of the I.N.D.I.A bloc allies upon the Congress to form an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party for the Delhi elections. From Akhilesh Yadav to Uddhav Thackeray to Sharad Pawar to Mamata Banerjee, all have backed the AAP and reminded the Congress that one of the foundations for the I.N.D.I.A bloc was to support whichever party is best placed to defeat the BJP in the states and at the Centre. However, the Congress has a point in contesting alone, otherwise it faces an existential dilemma. Not just the AAP but most regional parties such as the NCP, TMC, YSRCP, SP, BSP and to an extent, even the DMK have all grown at the cost of the Congress. They have taken the space vacated by the Congress, brought in more charismatic leaders and become dominant players. If the Congress has to win back its voter base, it will have to show some presence on the ground and contest each and every election that comes its way. But if its sole motive is to defeat the BJP then of course it must concede as many seats as it can to the party that is better placed to take on the BJP at the state level—this includes SP, BSP, AAP and TMC. Therein lies the crunch. There is a way out as suggested by CVoter Founder and psephologist Yashwant Deshmukh on “Cover Story” when he pointed out that the Congress should tell its alliance partners that while they get the lion’s share of the seats in local elections, the Congress should be given the larger chunk at the Lok Sabha level as it is the only pan India national party in opposition and thereby best placed to take on the BJP. But if any negotiations have to be done, now is the time. And not a few months before the next Lok Sabha polls.
No Smriti Irani or Meenakshi Lekhi for Greater Kailash
Rumours were rife that the BJP was planning to field either Smriti Irani or Meenakshi Lekhi to take on the popular Saurabh Bharadwaj from the AAP for the Greater Kailash seat. The party also perhaps felt the need to field a strong woman candidate, given the fact that the women voters are emerging as a decisive bloc and the AAP has a strong gender balance with both Arvind Kejriwal and the sitting Chief Minister Atishi Singh. However, at the last minute it was decided to deny Lekhi a ticket and project Irani as a star campaigner, but not a candidate. One reason for this could be that Irani is now associated more with Uttar Pradesh than Delhi; though she did contest—and lose—the Chandani Chowk seat against Kapil Sibal in the 2004 elections. If you recall, the Congress tried the same with Sheila Dikshit when it tried to project the former Delhi CM as its face in Uttar Pradesh for the 2017 state polls. To get back to the Greater Kailash seat, the BJP has finalised the name of Shikha Rai, who is currently serving her second term as a BJP councillor from Ward no 173 in Greater Kailash constituency. She has also been general secretary, vice president and president of the Delhi BJP’s women’s wing. Rai is also one who is a familiar face in the locality. The face-off will be an interesting one, for Bharadwaj has been a consistent on-ground presence in the constituency as well as being a key member of Team Kejriwal.
Congress Gets a New Address
The new headquarters of the Congress Party is located at 9A Kotla Marg, even though it is situated on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg. However, the Congress was wary of having an address on a road named after an RSS ideologue and found a way out (or way in) by shifting its main entrance to the back of the building, thereby ensuring a Kotla Marg address. In fact, so keen was Rahul Gandhi to distance the party from the RSS way of life that in his very first speech from the new office he unleashed a strong attack on the RSS and its chief Mohan Bhagwat. And of course the new office is named Indira Gandhi Bhawan, but it does have a Dr Manmohan Singh library, and a picture of Narasimha Rao on its walls. Clearly, getting its optics right.