BJP’S GOBBLING POWER
The Maharashtra civic poll results saw the BJP come out as a winner, especially when it bagged the prestigious BMC seat, wresting the Mayor’s position from the Thackerays after three decades. However, the BJP still needs some outside support to secure the Mayor’s post and its current ally, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena seems to have upped its ante and doesn’t want to be relegated to just a supporting role. The Shinde faction wants the BJP to support its candidate as Mayor and fearing that the bigger party may try to break away its corporators, has resorted to resort politics. This has not gone down well with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. More so after Eknath Shinde took the support of Raj Thackeray’s party to sideline the BJP in the Kalyan-Dombivali civic body. The BJP now could return the compliment by tying up with the Thackeray cousins and sidelining Shinde. While Raj has no qualms about being “flexible” and playing both sides, Uddhav Thackeray’s corporators may not openly support the BJP’s mayoral candidate, but could abstain in the vote. All in all, with Ajit Pawar tying up with Sharad Pawar (though the outcome is still unclear), there does seem to be some kind of realignment happening in Maharashtra politics, which could have a domino effect at the national level. Too interestingly, while speaking to the media at a lunch hosted at his house, Rajya Sabha MP (from the Samajwadi Party) Kapil Sibal commented that the BJP only allies with regional parties to finish them off, and take their space. There’s a lesson there for Ajit Pawar, Eknath Shinde as well as Uddhav Thackeray.
PRIYANKA IN DAVOS
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s appointment as the General Secretary in-charge of Assam has had an impact already. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma travelled all the way to Davos to target the Gandhi siblings. In an interview given against the backdrop of the picturesque Swiss Alps, it was Priyanka whom he talked about. Sarma claimed that the only reason Priyanka had been sent to Assam was to get her out of Kerala so she didn’t queer the pitch for K.C. Venugopal. (Both Priyanka and Venugopal are MPs from Kerala and it’s an open secret that the latter fancies his chances for the CM’s post should the Congress come to power in the state). Since Venugopal is known for his proximity to Rahul Gandhi, the Assam Chief Minister claimed that the entire motive behind sending Priyanka to Assam was to distract her from the Kerala polls. He also added, for good measure, that he himself was a victim of this rivalry between the brother and sister while he was in the Congress.
Given that this was the first time any Chief Minister from Assam visited Davos, at least Priyanka’s appointment had him focusing on the Congress—which itself shows that the decision to send her to Assam has had its desired effect. The CM will be targeting her in his campaign during the state polls as well, so expect some feisty face-offs between the two, because there is little doubt that Priyanka will take the bait, and respond.
POSTS FROM DAVOS
The number of Indian Chief Ministers visiting Davos, only to flood their social media posts with pictures of meetings with other members of the Indian contingent—be it other Chief Ministers, Indian industrialists or even the media from back home. This has given rise to a host of criticism on social media, questioning if this is the right use of the taxpayers’ money. So one awaits the post-Davos report card with some interest.
