Game On
Those who were wondering why Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had not resigned as general secretary along with Jyotiraditya Scindia, got their answer last weekend when she took on the Uttar Pradesh government with full force. In fact, according to Congress sources, while Rahul Gandhi may have ruled out his sister as the next Congress president, it doesn’t mean that Priyanka is totally out of the race. The Congress does plan to go ahead and choose an interim president—someone who is not part of the Gandhi family. But that will only be a stop gap measure. However, under this interim president, Priyanka would be given charge of UP. There is a feeling within the Congress that with the BSP and SP not being able to put up a good show in the Lok Sabha, the Congress stands an equal chance in taking on the BJP. More to the point, the interim chief would hold sway only for a temporary period until elections are held for the post of Congress president. And no one is ruling out Priyanka emerging as the dark horse candidate, either during these elections or at a later stage after the party experiments with a non Gandhi at the helm.
RSS Vs Swadeshi Jagran Manch
The RSS and its economic wing, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM) are not seeing eye to eye on the issue of foreign currency bonds that were announced in the Budget recently. The SJM co-convenor, Ashwani Mahajan has gone on record opposing these. Sources claim that one of the areas of concern is if the rupee depreciates then one could end up paying a lot more for these bonds at the time of maturity. However, government sources have assured the RSS that a lot depends on the size of the borrowings, and with the liquidity in the domestic market already stretched the concept of foreign borrowings makes sense. For now, no one from the RSS has joined hands with the SJM in opposing the sovereign bonds.