There are few interesting stories from the political field which are in the media for last couple of days. Let me elaborate on few of them
1 Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for Congress President-It is more than 6 weeks, when Rahul Gandhi made his intention clear that he want to quit as Congress President and resigned and even did not heed to request from party leadership to continue. There has been wide speculation in the Congress leaders/members about who is going to head the Congress, and it is tussle happening between old guards and young brigade, who is going to lead the party. Suddenly in the last few days there have been few leaders who have started clamouring for Priyanka as party President. Earlier Priyanka name was not pushed openly because Rahul Gandhi had said that the party should find someone other than member of Gandhi family. Now there are many leaders like Shashi Tharoor, Bhakta Charan Das, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Abhijeet Mukherjee who have started pushing her name for Congress top post.
And yesterday Punjab CM Amarinder Singh also backed her , saying that “the Congress General Secretary would be an ideal candidate to take over the reins of the party. He further added that she would get all round support if chosen to take over the party. She has a natural charisma which has often prompted many to make comparison with her grand mother Indira Gandhi. She also comes with able organisational experience during last General Elections in Uttar Pradesh. India is young nation and will respond to young leader. She has the intelligence and instinct to understand and relate to the needs of the nation and courage to take on any challenge and take the fight to victory.”
The way things are going on, it will not be surprising that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might be the new Congress President, because most of the Congressmen can not look beyond member of Gandhi family as their leader.
2 This news is about political scene in Maharashtra- it looks like there is more trouble for Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the state. After the last general elections there have been continuous exodus from both the parties, and specially from NCP. Recently Sachin Ahir a former MLA from NCP joined Shiv Sena. Two days back Vaibhav Pichad, son of prominent NCP leader Madhukar Pichad , a former state minister announced that he is joining hands with BJP. In a fresh jolt for Sharad Pawar, NCP’s founder & President, NCP’s Navi Mumbai leader Ganesh Naik and his two sons- MLA Sandip Naik and former MP Sanjeev Naik- along with all the 52 Corporators in Navi Mumbai are likely to join BJP within next 2 days. Naik has been with Pawar since the formation of NCP in 1999. Along with Naiks, MLAs Shivendra Bhosle from Satara and Vaibhav Pichad (Akole-Ahmednagar) and his father Madhukar Pichad, a founder member of NCP will also join BJP.
It looks like there is insecurity in Congress & NCP, and as the elections to state assembly are approaching the MLAs from these parties are vying for BJP- Sena ticket. There are rumours in the political circle that after the state elections Congress/NCP strength in the assembly will come down to 40 whch is half of its present strength of 80. There are rumours that even Chhagan Bhujbal, who had left Shiv Sena and joined Congress and then shifted to NCP, during its formation, also wants to come back to Shiv Sena along with his son and nephew, but in his case there is strong resistance from Shiv Sena cadre, because they have not forgotten how he ditched Balasaheb Thackrey in the 1990s. Remember when few years back Narayan Rane (ex Shiv Sena) left Congress and wanted to join BJP, and BJP was ready to make him MLC and gave him a ministerial berth in state cabinet, Shiv Sena gave the ultimatum to BJP that they will not like Rane in state cabinet. In the end BJP supported Rane (independent candidate) for Rajya Sabha.
One thing is sure, there is no chance of Congress/NCP staging a comeback to power during next state assembly elections.
So friends keep watching the further development in both the issues, as mentioned above.
Awaiting your feed back/views/comments.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
30th July 2019.
Bobby
The worst that can happen in a democracy is to have a weak opposition or no opposition as them the rulers take the public for granted as can be seen in the last 50 days of the new dispensation coming to power.