A Page from Mahabharat
The 73-year-old Harish Rawat is playing the emotional card these elections by stating that this could be his last polls. The state of Uttarakhand does have a young demographic, with the BJP putting up a 40 something candidate against him in Pushkar Dhami. But Rawat is quick to remind the voters the value of age and experience for he cites the example of Bhishma Pitamah who led the battle for 10 days while others younger than him did not last as long.
Mrs Sidhu vs the Congress
While Rahul Gandhi may have brokered an uneasy truce between Navjot Singh Sidhu and the Congress party’s CM face, Charanjit Singh Channi, it is clear that the peace is a very fragile one. This was clear from Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur who tore into Channi in front of the media, questioned his humble origins and made it clear that her vote would go to the Aam Aadmi Party. While announcing his choice, Rahul Gandhi had stated that one of the factors in Channi’s favour was that he comes from a humble background. To this Navjot Kaur pointed out that going by income tax returns Channi was much richer than her husband, besides which money should not be the criterion in deciding a CM face. Well, she is right on that one. Having said that, there are those (especially within the Congress) who see Channi’s elevation as Rahul’s masterstroke, and talk about how the Gandhi siblings finally got it right in Punjab—using Sidhu to get rid of Captain Amarinder Singh; and then propping up Channi to contain Sidhu.
The Pawar Girl
Supriya Sule is fast becoming an articulate voice for the Opposition in Parliament. First she took on Jyotiraditya Scindia for attacking the Congress after being a part of it for so long, and more recently chided Tejasvi Surya for his comment that dynastic politics promoted socialism. First, she counted all the dynasts in the BJP including Tejasvi’s own uncle, Ravi Subramanya, who is an MLA from Karnataka and also read out a list of business houses that came up during the pre-Modi era. Although Senior Pawar was on good terms with Prime Minister Modi and before entering into an alliance with the Shiv Sena, there were rumours of an NCP-BJP tie-up, but his daughter, Supriya Sule has never shirked from taking on the BJP directly. In fact, if given a choice then going by her politics, Supriya would never align with the BJP, though she did not raise objections to the alliance with the Sena. But, politics aside, it’s good to see the likes of Supriya Sule, Mahua Moitra joining in the Parliament debate and adding fuel to the Opposition fire, for the BJP has never lacked for articulate speakers.
Shashi Tharoor vs Athawale
Social media is not always vicious, sometimes we also see some good natured oneupmanship. Recently, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke in Parliament, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had tweeted that judging by the stunned expression on the Treasury benches even her colleagues could not believe her claims on the budget. Since he mentioned Ramdas Athawale by name, the Union Minister decided to respond. In his tweet he pointed out spelling mistakes in Tharoor’s tweet and added that one is bound to make mistakes while making unnecessary claims. Of course Tharoor had to have the last word. And while acknowledging a hit, he added that perhaps the JNU Vice Chancellor would benefit from Athawale’s tutelage. (Tharoor was referring to the newly appointed JNU Vice Chancellor Shantishree Pandit whose press note had many grammatical errors). Interestingly, one of those who subbed her errors on social media was BJP MP Varun Gandhi, who was the first to point out that her press note was “littered with grammatical mistakes,” adding that “such mediocre appointments serve to damage our human capital & our youth’s future.” After Varun’s tweet the JNU VC’s appointment came under the social media scanner.