The Power of Three
There is talk of Sharad Pawar’s NCP merging with the Congress. That is not surprising because Sharad Pawar’s daughter and NCP leader Supriya Sule has been more in favour with the Congress option rather than joining the NDA ranks. In fact given the state that the TMC (Mamata Banerjee) and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) are in, the Congress will benefit with having three feisty women leaders speaking up for its cause-of-the-day: these include Supriya Sule, Mahua Moitra and Priyanka Chaturvedi. Of the three, Priyanka is not an MP but is an articulate presence on social media and TV debates. And with their own parties losing prominence and yielding the leadership to the Congress, it does look like Rahul Gandhi will get three very articulate leaders speaking in one unified voice.
To Reshuffle or Not
Much has been debated about the cabinet reshuffle, the Prime Minister’s calendar has been scrutinised for possible dates and when Home Minister Amit Shah cancelled an outstation trip on 5 July, it seemed as if that was The Date as all the stars aligned in terms of the fact that the PM, President and the Home Minister were all in town on the same day. But—while nothing is sure—it seems as if the entire exercise was a social media chimera and the reshuffle may be postponed post the Monsoon Session. Or it could happen tomorrow, but with the PM slated for a week of international travel in the second week of July, the window between now and the 21st is closing fast.
Will Cong tie with BSP?
Contrary to the buzz at the Congress headquarters, which seems to be in the favour of a tie-up with the BSP, the mood in Lucknow seems to be in favour of Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party. The fear is that while the tie-up with Mayawati may prove to be beneficial to the Congress, it will also benefit the BSP and in the past the latter has not proved to be a reliable ally. As Surendra Rajput, Congress national spokesperson asked on NewsX, “What is to stop Mayawati from teaming up with the BJP once the results come in?” That is something that the Congress leadership will need to take into account.
