POLITICAL DELICACIES
By Nora Chopra
Believe it or not, the Indian National Congress, which has ruled the country for five decades since 1947, is believed to have drawn an overdraft of about Rs 350 crores from a bank on Rahul Gandhi’s campaign. The party had gone ‘broke’ in the midst of a election campaign which paled before that of Narendra Modi. The ruling Congress spent on its election campaign a whopping Rs 400 crores and had to take even an overdraft of Rs 350 crores from a national bank as they ran short of money in the midst of the poll rallies. While several general secretaries admit it in the off record conversation that in the Congress Party’s history it was the costliest election but the party treasurer Motilal Vora denied taking any loan from a bank.
Team Rahul proved too costly
The campaign managers of Rahul Gandhi are in serious trouble over spending hundreds of crores with the result as zero. There were five offices set up to manage the election campaign. 15, Gurudwara Rakab Ganj office, known better as the war room, where top Congress leaders met to draw out the election strategies, several lakhs of rupees were spent on constructing a special room for Jairam Ramesh the main election strategist of Rahul Gandhi’s campaign. But finally the war room became defunct as the entire paraphernalia shifted to Rahul’s Tughlaq Road residence. Then there was 99 South Avenue which was specially run for Madhusudan Mistry who used it to chalk out the UP strategy and finalize the candidates for UP and even other states. Then there was one bungalow on Humanyun Road where spokespersons met and discussed the media strategy. Then there was K Raju, the IAS turned chairman of the SC ST department who ran an office from Meena Bagh to formulate the party’s strategy for the scheduled castes. Mohan Gopal of course ran the party’s campaign from his RG office. And the super head office was where Rahul Gandhi sat with his high tech team of boys and girls with exorbitant salaries to nod or reject the presentation given to him and his team by senior leaders. The latest to join Rahul’s high tech team is a young lady called Mitakshara Singh. She is believed to be hired on exorbitant salary of nearly five lakhs plus salary per month one year before the elections to look after his PR. She is recruit of Rahul’s philosopher and guide Sam Pitroda with whom she was working in the Planning Commission where she was drawing a salary of five lakhs per month. But the question doing the rounds in the Congress and even the other political parties is what did the party achieve out of this over spending on a fruitless political campaign.
Modi’s plan behind hrd pick
Narendra Modi the pracharak might have deserted his legally married wife but he has of late emerged as the new Casanova. Women swoon over him irrespective of their age. He has a large fan following among the BJP women. With the picture becoming clearer of things to come, all the women particularly the younger ones, wanted to be on the right side of Modi. Infighting has broken out among all the cheer women of Narendra Modi after he inducted seven of the BJP women dashing the hopes of the rest. The induction of Smriti Irani has not gone down well in the BJP cadres, particularly among those women who had spent more than a year defending Modi. They are all feeling left out and cheated. As for Irani against whom you can hear the women bitching in Ashoka Road, Modi has chosen her with a motive. He first gave her the Rajya Sabha, then he sent her to contest against his main rival and now a portfolio like HRD, which was always close to the RSS’ heart. After all, it is only through an undergraduate non-RSS woman whom he can remote control that Modi can stay above all. In other words Modi is the real HRD minister, Smriti is just his face for HRD.
Sharad Pawar may part ways with Congress
The Congress is in for another setback. Tension is growing between Sharad Pawar and the Congress leadership. Sharad Pawar, whose hopes of becoming the prime minister of a coalition government have crashed may now part company with the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. He has conveyed to the Congress leadership that if they want the partnership to continue they would have to first replace Prithviraj Chavan as the Maharashtra CM. His second condition is that in the assembly polls they will contest on more seats. The Congress is supposed to have conveyed to him that his proposal would not be entertained. Pawar also does not want Rahul at the top. The verdict, giving absolute majority to BJP has left several PM hopefuls disdained, as Pawar was in touch with most members of the non BJP and non Congress parties. His grouse against the Congress was that they did not say categorically that they would support the Third Front if they fail to make it. The thinking in the NCP is that if Congress had declared support to the third front, then the BJP would not have got a majority. Pawar is looking for other options. His Man Friday Praful Patel is also in touch with Narendra Modi. Now with his last hope being dashed his only motive is to settle his daughter Supriya Sule before he retires from active politics.
Priya’s volte face stings Rahul
Priya Dutt, the AICC secretary attached to the media, has left the entire Congress leadership shocked and stunned with her utterances blaming Rahul Gandhi for the Congress defeat. Dutt was brought in by no other than Rahul Gandhi as a young face of the Congress to counter the BJP. All through her two years in office, she was never available to the media. She behaved like a film star. The only time she came to Delhi and briefed the media was when she came and sang paeans of Rahul Gandhi. It was Priya Dutt who started the demand to declare Rahul the PM candidate. The same Priya Dutt who became an MP for two decades because of her parents Sunil Dutt and Nargis has shocked everyone when she said that the party lost because of Rahul’s disconnect with people. (IPA)