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The Congress President is In
The recent handling of the Kumari Selja crisis is an indication of the way the Congress president is running the party. This is not the first inner party turf that Mallikarjun Kharge has handled—from the Ashok Gehlot vs Sachin Pilot to D.K. Shivakumar vs Siddaramaiah, he has been firefighting from the word go. In fact Rahul Gandhi was in the US when a miffed Selja implemented her boycott and stayed away from the Haryana campaign trail. As senior journalist Rasheed Kidwai revealed on the Roundtable (NewsX), it was Mallikarjun Kharge who reached out to both Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Selja and brokered a truce. He told both not to overestimate their individual ambitions at the cost of the party’s interests. He reportedly told Hooda that 25% cannot alone win the state—the reference being to the fact that Jats constitute 25% of the state’s population and are in fact the largest vote bank in Haryana. However, the Dalit vote is the second largest (about 20% to 22%) and Selja is a Dalit leader. In fact, along with the Dalits and Jats, another formidable vote bank is the OBCs, but these are divided into various castes. Both the BJP and the Congress have kept these three communities in mind while giving out the tickets, as elections in Haryana are fought largely on caste lines and not so much on religion. In turn, Selja too was given a cautionary tale about patience with an example from Kharge’s own life for he had to wait a long while before getting his due recognition. Soon after, Hooda and Selja were seen on the dais together at Rahul’s rally in Haryana.

What Next for Sunil Jakhar?
Is Sunil Jakhar going to quit the BJP? The Punjab BJP chief has been absent from key party meetings, leading to speculation that he is contemplating a parting of ways. Ever since another Congress export, Ravneet Singh Bittu had been made a minister and given a Rajya Sabha nomination (from Rajasthan), Jhakar’s supporters have been crying foul. The state unit chief has given several key meetings in the state a miss and given the fact that the state will be facing four bypolls soon, this has created a leadership gap in Punjab BJP. It is clear that Bittu is being groomed to play a larger role in state politics and this could be at the cost of Jakhar’s own chief ministerial ambitions. Apart from being the grandson of former Punjab CM Beant Singh, Bittu has also emerged as a strong voice to take on Rahul Gandhi. He rarely loses an opportunity to target his former boss, much on the lines of Himanta Biswa Sarma’s politics. This has earned Bittu some favour with the party’s top brass. However, this has clearly made Jakhar rethink his move to the BJP. In addition, sources say Jakhar was promoting a tie-up with SAD during the recent Lok Sabha polls but the talks broke down as the BJP was demanding more seats than the Akalis were ready to give. Which, in the end, leaves Jakhar contemplating an answer to a question posed by a former colleague. The Congress MP from Ludhiana, Amarinder Singh Warring (who defeated Bittu in the Lok Sabha) recently took a dig at the BJP’s infighting and tweeted: Mr Sunil Jakhar, All the Best. What next?.

Who will be the next BJP Chief?
It will be very interesting to see who succeeds J.P. Nadda as the next BJP chief. Currently there is some talk that the RSS is keen to assert its hold over the party. The fact that Nadda has continued as the BJP chief, despite his term having ended in June, is an indication that the BJP duo are holding sway. But given that Nadda’s six-month extension ends in January next year it would be interesting to see who replaces him as the next BJP chief. According to speculation, the RSS is pushing the candidature of former Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan or Vasundhara Raje Scindia. On their part the Modi-Shah duo are said to prefer Manohar Lal Khattar, the former Haryana Chief Minister, who also enjoys a good equation with the RSS top brass. However, if the BJP goes in for a working president until it appoints a full time party president, then Devendra Fadnavis could make the grade, along with other names that are being considered which include Sunil Bansal and Vinod Tawde. But for the post of a party president to succeed Nadda, of all mentioned, it does seem that the race is between Shivraj Singh Chouhan and M.L. Khattar as both are veteran leaders who are seasoned enough to walk this particular tightrope.

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