By Nora Chopra
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is unlikely to lead the Congress in 2014. Though he is likely to be re-nominated from Assam to the Rajya Sabha, pressure is mounting from within the Congress that the Prime Minister should announce his retirement and make way for Rahul Gandhi before the Lok Sabha comes to an end. The thinking in the party is that with corruption and scams being the flavour of UPA-2, how can Manmohan Singh at the helm lead the party to victory? A section has been blaming the PM, who despite having a clean image, has closed his eyes to the corruption taking place right under his nose. All those so far charged of corruption had been members of Manmohan Singh’s Punjabi lobby. Whereas those close to the PM are heard blaming the anti-PM lobby within the Congress for these exposures and targeting the PM’s men. They have been heard alleging that the CBI director, who is known for shielding Lalu in the fodder case, is acting on behest of his political masters both within the Congress and the Opposition. At the first core committee meeting held two weeks ago after the exposure on Ashwani Kumar, Sonia Gandhi is said to have blown her top and blamed the PM for shielding Kumar at the cost of the party’s image and credibility. It was never so low, she is supposed to have said.
Modi’s campaign trilemma
Narendra Modi can contest from two seats — Gandhinagar in Gujarat and Lucknow in UP. The latest debate that has gripped the Bharatiya Janata Party is whether Narendra Modi should contest the Lok Sabha election or not in 2014. Despite the clamour for him to contest from within, the debate revolves around three options. First he continues as chief minister of Gujarat and is the chief campaigner for BJP. He travels all over the country to campaign. The second option is that he continues both as CM and is the chief campaigner, but contests from one seat from Gujarat. The third option is that he remains the CM but contests from two seats — one from Gujarat and the other from outside Gujarat, probably from UP, as that can not only revive the BJP in the northern state but can send out a pan-India message. Modi himself is for the third option for he believes that he has to contest from Gujarat, because without him in Gujarat the BJP will not be able to get the kind of wave needed for the party to come to power. He wants to contest from Gandhinagar and Lucknow. By doing this in one stroke he would push out Advani from Gandhinagar and acquire the Vajpayee mantle also. He is also said to be of the firm belief that unless he contests from Lucknow, the BJP cannot revive itself in UP. But a large section of the party leadership believes that he should not contest and just campaign for the party. He would be made the PM depending on the number of seats the party gets. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is on record saying Modi will not contest the Lok Sabha.
Bansal – A milchcow for his kins
Vijay Singla is not the only close relative of the union railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who acts as his political and business manager. Vitul Kumar, UP cadre IPS officer, who is also the son-in-law of Bansal’s brother, is another example. If you go by the talks in Rail Bhawan, he acts as the de facto rail minister. If anyone wants to approach the minister for any work, he has to first go through Vitul Kumar, who in turn decides whose work has to be given precedence.
Vasundhara Raje banks on Gadkari
Despite the fact that political atmosphere is against Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan and Vasundhara Raje Scindia is back in the reckoning, she is still not comfortable. The RSS, who she thinks was instrumental in her defeat last time, is still unhappy with her, adding to her discomfort and uncertainty. She wants the party high command to declare the name of Nitin Gadkari as in-charge of Rajasthan, so that he can work out some solution and resolve her differences with the RSS. Though Gadkari’s name is yet to be announced, she has already been pressurising Rajnath Singh to send Gadkari to Rajasthan. Gadkai was in Jaipur on May 4, Saturday last week, to address the Deen Dayal Memorial lecture. But the real reason for Gadkari’s visit, who is seen as close to the RSS, was supposedly to mediate between Vasu and the RSS leaders there.
Congress rewards loser Prakash
Mohan Prakash is on the rise both monetarily as well as politically. He was again rewarded on Monday this week when he was given the additional charge of being the party spokesman. A rank outsider, his contributions to the Congress party are innumerable. He contributed largely to the Congress defeat in Uttar Pradesh last year by advising the party to give tickets to outsiders, mainly OBCs from other parties, who have never been the Congress voters. As a result, the party was wiped out. Again, later in 2012, the party was decimated in Gujarat of which he was in-charge. In Gujarat, he played politics against Ahmad Patel. He denied tickets to his loyalists, as a result the party lost all seats in Baruch, his home district. Again, he failed to deliver in the local body election in Maharashtra where he was in-charge. In Mumbai, Congressmen were so upset that when Rahul went there to address party workers, they raised slogans against Prakash in his presence, but despite the resentment brewing against him there is no stopping to his continuous rise in the Congress party. Rahul Gandhi is said to be highly impressed by him!
Seven soldiers to guard Congress from media
The most powerful Ahmad Patel will now be working under Janardhan Dwivedi in the quick response media committee. Rahul Gandhi has constituted a quick response media committee comprising of seven members — Janardhan Dwivedi, Ahmad Patel, Digvijay Singh, Manish Tewari, V Narayanswamy, Sandeep Dikshit and Depinder Hooda. This committee has been constituted to guide the media department after it was felt it was fumbling on crucial issues facing the government and the party. Sandeep Dikshit would head a team of researchers to advise the media department and Hooda would be looking after the social media. The formation of this committee is being seen as a move undermining the media department which has failed in countering the attacks of the opposition on the Congress and the government. [IPA]