Monday Briefs

Last Friday,  Lok Sabha  debated on No Confidence motion tabled by Telugu Desam Party (TDP)  MP, which was supported by Congress and few other opposition parties. I fail to understand what was the reason of this No Confidence motion against NDA govt, when every one knew that Govt has support of the the majority members. Agreed that TDP has a grouse against Modi govt , just because  his govt did not grant special state status to Andhra Pradesh, as due to division of earlier Andhra State into Telengana & Andhra, TDP which is ruling Andhra now wanted  additional central funds to develop the state, which could have been possible if they were granted the special state status.But there is a certain ruling by SC which forbids from govt giving any special state status.Before the debate day Congress spoke person was boasting that they have numbers to topple the govt, which in the end proved to a totally false claim, as movers of the No Confidence Motion could garner only 126 votes and ruling NDA govt got 325 votes. Congress was expecting there will be split in NDA  votes which will have negative impact on the ruling party. Nothing of this sort happened, some parties like Biju Janata Dal (BJD) & Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) who were were not with Congress walked out during voting and Shiv Sena, although they are part of NDA abstain from voting. The icing on the cake for NDA was that Anna DMK sided with govt.

The proceeding of Friday in Lok Sabha proved that the opposition unity project is yet to attain critical mass.Most Regional Party kept their cards close to themselves, because they are still worried about the Congress strategy, which at the moment is by hook or crook they want to see Rahul Gandhi as next PM, but with Congress base eroding through out the country strong Regional Parties will not like to give chunk of seats to Congress to contest in their strong region. This scenario will be good for BJP, as they will find it easy to play against the fractured opposition. The fact is Congress has not much base in states like UP, where SP & BSP are much stronger then Congress; Bihar, where RJD & JD U are stronger than Congress; West Bengal, where TMC is very strong and Congress presence is negligible; North East, where Regional Parties are strong and Congress base is eroded; Orrisa, where BJD is very strong and Congress is no where; in southern states except Karnataka Congress has got no base in other states;the states where Congress is considered as 2nd party after BJP are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan & Madhya Pradesh. Only other state where Congress is considered strong is Punjab. Compare to this BJP has strong presence across Pan India except for states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra & Telengana. So Congress has to work very hard to achieve their target of  making Rahul, the next PM.

During No confidence motion, the opposition parties used the debate to high light their lines of argument for the next general elections. The two common points and charges against govt were the lack of delivery of what the govt promises and growing intolerance under their rule. Rahul Gandhi, while speaking in the debate leveled additional charges against govt regarding Rafale aircraft deal, demonitisation and lack of job creation.

Modi, while replying to the motion, was at his best and he decimated each and every charge of Congress and other opposition parties with fitting reply which was totally supported by statistics and data, and he started telling the other parties in fray how Congress could not be trusted alliance partner by quoting previous instances where Congress ditched other parties. It was very cleat that Modi was seeking to drive a wedge between opposition unity, and which he partly succeeded when in the end BJD and TRS walked out and did not vote.

Actually this No Confidence debate was trailer for the coming election, which proved that BJP remains in the driving seat.  Given the present situation, I will not be surprised, if  Modi govt pushes for simultaneous Lok Sabha & State  Assembly poll  by early next year, so that they can use the position to their advantage, even Supreme Court (SC) is also for simultaneous poll.

So in the end, waiting for your comments/feed backs/views on this matter.