NEW DELHI
The ticket distribution for upcoming Assembly polls has brought to the fore the tussle among Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Congress is totally dependent on local leaders as central leadership cannot ensure its victory in the assembly elections.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is the only face who can pave the way for Congress’ victory in the state. Similarly, three years of hard work by Kamal Nath has strengthened Congress’ position in MP. Any attempt to control these two leaders from outside can spoil Congress’ chances.
If internal fighting for tickets intensifies it will harm the Congress. However, the BJP is also facing internal problems. Meanwhile, Congress high command is also responsible for the infighting, as it did not take timely action to control it. The central party organisation in Delhi is facing a lot of problems. The organisation is working without any work distribution. Only KC Venugopal handles the entire work. He is shouldering all responsibilities from signing letters to resolving the internal issues. It shows that the Gandhi family trusts Venugopal a lot.
During Karnataka polls, Congress had released a list of candidates quite early which helped it rein in factionalism. The move benefited Congress in Karnataka as well. But the leadership committed a mistake in MP and Rajasthan by delaying the list. The list could not be released in September. The party could have announced a list of at least those candidates who are facing no challenge from within the party. It could have come in the first week of September itself. There are 50 to 100 names in every party who can be given tickets without any problems. Earlier it seemed that this time tickets would be distributed easily. Unlike previously, ticket seekers will not have to go to Delhi this time round. But this did not happen. Till the release of the first list in Madhya Pradesh, the situation appeared to be under control. Congress appeared to have an upper hand over BJP.
In fact, BJP’s decision to field the central leaders was initially seen as a move going to benefit the party. But according to reports, only Prahlad Patel seems to be confident of victory. Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya are worried. Everything was looking fine in the Congress camp as well. Suddenly there was a rumor about Digvijay Singh’s resignation. A video of the heated argument between Kamal Nath and Digvijay also went viral. Somehow the party handled the matter and controlled the situation.
After the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting held in Delhi on Wednesday, there were reports of differences between the two leaders over tickets. Sources say that this time Kamal Nath is not ready to take any such risk by giving tickets to weak leaders. He also does not want to repeat the mistake of 2020. Needless to say, the BJP will not miss any chance to capitalise on any rift between Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh.
On Wednesday itself, there were some reports regarding Rajasthan which would not be said to be in the interest of Congress. In fact, the media supporting Sachin Pilot apparently once again published such speculative news. It is because of such reporting he has again come on the radar of the high command. There is no doubt that this section of the media has caused a huge loss to Sachin Pilot by tweeting and publishing wrong reports over the last five years.
The same section of the media ran a story about Chief Minister Gehlot getting reprimanded by the high command. The media in fact tried to spoil the party’s poll prospects in the state. The next day, Chief Minister Gehlot made it clear from the party platform that the high command is completely standing with him. He said that no one should be under any kind of misconception. Experts believe that Gehlot clarified the situation from the party platform only on the instructions of the high command. However, BJP will definitely try to derive political mileage out of this situation. No doubt, former CMVasundhara Raje remains the biggest challenge for BJP. Any rebellious gesture by Raje can be of great benefit to Congress, only if Sachin keeps distance from the agenda-centric media.