Rushing to Error
It was in the early morning hours of 11 June, around 2 a.m. that Kartikeya Sharma, the Independent candidate from Haryana, and owner of ITV Network, was declared a victor in the Haryana Rajya Sabha polls. Prior to this he had raised an objection with the Election Commission stating that the votes of two Congress MLAs should be declared invalid as they had breached the oath of secrecy. When this plea was turned down by the Election Commission the counting began late at night. A jubilant Congress sent in Shaktisinh Gohil as one of its observers for the counting, and initially all went as per the Congress script. When the last few ballot papers were left, an excited Gohil rushed out, perhaps keen to convey the good news to his party boss. (No cell phones are allowed inside). It was then that the EC officials came across Congress MLA Kiran Chaudhary’s vote, which did not adhere to the prescribed format and hence had to be declared invalid—thereby paving the way for Kartikeya’s win with the help of second preference votes. In the meanwhile, an overjoyed and much relieved Maken tweeted his victory and began receiving congratulations. Later, when the real results came out, Maken had to delete his tweet; and only ended up adding salt to his wounds.
Non Appointment to Disappointment
The biggest story of the recent Rajya Sabha elections is the win by Kartikeya Sharma, Managing Director ITV Network who won from Haryana. Although Kartikeya fought as an Independent, he was backed by the JJP, BJP and some Independent MLAs. The win becomes all the more monumental for he was up against a strong Congress candidate—Rahul Gandhi’s key aide, Ajay Maken. It was Rahul who had finalised Maken’s candidature from Haryana (some say over Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s wishes) and was counting on his win to build his team within the party. One of the reasons why Maken lost was that the Congress lost two crucial votes. One of these was of Kuldeep Bishnoi, who voted in favour of Kartikeya. Apparently, before the vote—or so goes Delhi’s rumour mill—Maken had approached Bishnoi for his support. The latter told him he would support his candidature on one condition—which is to ensure a meeting with Rahul Gandhi before voting day. When Maken hedged saying that Rahul was abroad, he was told that Bishnoi was willing to travel for the meeting. But even when Rahul came back to the capital, Maken could not swing that meeting. And the rest, as they say, is part of political folklore. In fact, all that the Congress trouble shooters had to do was to look at Bishnoi’s Twitter feed to know which way he would be voting and try and do damage control. Before the vote, Bishnoi talked about going by his “inner voice”; he also issued a couple of cryptic tweets stating that he would strike when the time was right and in the meanwhile some ponds should not mistake themselves for the ocean. Another one talked of attacking the snake’s hood.
Politically Correct DNA
Few know this but both the candidates for the Haryana Rajya Sabha share a common lineage in the form of the late President Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma. While Ajay Maken’s uncle Lalit Maken was married to Shankar Dayal’s Sharma’s daughter Gitanjali; Kartikeya Sharma’s uncle Shyam Sunder Sharma (his father Venod Sharma’s brother) was married to Shankar Dayal Sharma’s other daughter. This also makes Ashok Tanwar, who is married to Lalit Maken’s daughter Avantika, related to both Kartikeya and Ajay Maken. Hence his take on the Haryana polls was: “Doesn’t matter which one wins, for the winner will be my saala (brother in law).” That’s called being on a winning ticket.
More Exodus soon from the Congress?
After the Rajya Sabha nominations there was a buzz that some more Congress leaders would be leaving for the BJP.
Prominent amongst the names was that of Anand Sharma (he is said to have been Bhupinder Hooda’s first choice for the Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana but the Gandhis did not nominate him).
However, while the BJP would gain another scalp from the Congress, it is not clear what Sharma would gain. There is little chance that the BJP would award Sharma with a Rajya Sabha berth or any other perk. So Sharma would be better off biding his time in the Congress.
Meanwhile, there is also speculation of a younger leader talking to the BJP. Someone with a strong Congress lineage. Watch this space for the move, if it happens, is slated for the coming week.
Gehlot to stay
The Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is also known as the Jadugar in political parlance for he claims to be a part time magician when he is not playing politics. And indeed, he has pulled a rabbit out of a hat these Rajya Sabha elections by ensuring all the three Congress candidates won, despite the BJP fielding an Independent candidate and media baron Subash Chandra in the fray. Although Gehlot was not happy that the Congress had fielded three outsiders from the state, he played ball, and worked for a Congress win. This win apparently has now laid to rest any speculation that he would be replaced by Sachin Pilot any time soon for this has cemented the Chief Minister’s position, both within the state and with the party high command. Moreover, there are those in Rahul Gandhi’s camp who are not keen to see Sachin Pilot elevated. They are busy citing an inhouse survey which shows that Gehlot is more popular than Sachin Pilot within the Congress state leaders. Meanwhile, Sachin is chafing at the non-delivery of a promise that was made to him. How long will he wait, is a key question. Clearly, the Congress works in mysterious ways.
Team RaGa
The team at Rahul Gandhi’s Tughlaq Lane residence is emerging as an all-powerful cabal around the young leader. Take the recent Rajya Sabha list for example.
It is said that the list was finalised by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra via a video conference (since RaGa was abroad), with each getting three candidates each.
(The candidature of Vivek Tankha was apparently at the behest of Kamal Nath). But in reality it was Rahul Gandhi’s team that had the final say. Imran Pratapgarhi, who is said to have been nominated from Priyanka’s quota, was in fact suggested by Sandeep Singh and Alankar Sawai.
The former is a left leaning leader, who was sent by Rahul to help Priyanka in Uttar Pradesh, while Alankar, a former banker, is stationed at Tughlaq Lane and helps Rahul Gandhi with research and data.
According to sources, it was this duo that recommended Imran’s candidature from Maharashtra. Needless to add, it was a choice that left many Congress leaders puzzled. Then again, most of what Team RaGa does, leaves the rest of the party puzzled—and worried.