By Nora Chopra
Drastic overhaul of AICC set up on the cards
The Congress President Sonia Gandhi will revamp the Congress soon after the parliament session is over. Demoralization has taken over the party in the wake of the worst ever Congress defeat and pressure has mounted on the Congress leadership to change the face of the party completely. Action has been demanded against all those responsible for the present state of affairs. Among those under the scanner are party general secretaries Madhusudan Mistry, Mohan Prakash, Digvijay Singh and Rahul Gandhi’s campaign Managers Mohan Gopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Makan and Kanishka Singh. While Madhusudan is being accused for the party’s wipe out in Uttar Prades,. Mohan Prakash has presided over the party’s defeat first in UP assembly and then in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and now in Maharashtra. Digvijay has been accused of the Congress wipe out in Madhya Pradesh because of the infighting and the mess up in Andhra Pradesh of which he was in charge. As assembly elections in Maharashtra are due, it has become imperative for the party to sack Mohan Prakash and send both Madhusudan and Digvijay as PCC chief to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Several young leaders are likely to replace these general secretaries. Among the names who can find place in the new AICC are included Manish Tewari, Depinder Hooda and Randeep Singh Surjewala. Jaipal Reddy is also likely to get a place in the new AICC Most likely he would be general secretary in charge of the media. The party is also planning a chintan shivir in Delhi before the next session of Parliament.
Sonia differs with Rahul on Poll alliance strategy in Bihar
The Congress leadership has become immune to the blunders it has been committing in the last few years. The party’s top bosses both the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi are divided over the alliances in Bihar. The two were divided even when they joined hands with Lalu Prasad Yadav. Sonia wanted to go with Lalu and Rahul was in favour of Nitish Kumar. While Ram Vilas Paswan kept running to the Congress president to firm up his alliance with the Congress and the RJD and Sonia kept sending him to Rahul who did not take him seriously thus forcing him to join hands with the BJP and the result is there to see.. Ram Vilas is now a minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet. Shakeel Ahmad before the elections had convinced that if the Congress would go with Lalu Prasad they can sweep the polls. Despite the fact that Rahul was opposed to the alliance with Lalu and wanted to go with the JD(U) Sonia decided to put her weight behind Shakeel and Lalu. But after Shakeel was denied a ticket by Lalu from Madhubani he turned against him. He now wants the party to dump Lalu Prasad and join hands with Nitish Kumar. He is supposed to have convinced the JD(U)leaders that if they give him a Rajya Sabha he will convince the Congress leadership to join hands with the JD(U). Nitish was ready for the deal but on one condition that Sonia or Rahul or Ahmad Patel t will call Nitish Kumar and have discussions with him only.. Nitish also wanted the Congress to dump Lalu Prasad. While Shakeel Ahmad missed his bus to Rajya Sabha as Nitish kept waiting for a call from the Congress leaders, Sonia has refused to dump her long time ally Lalu. Rahul however wants to align with the JD(U) as pressure mounts on the Congress Pesident and the Vice President to act fast.
Rajya Sabha is now full of good speakers
With maximum number of sitting MPs having lost the Lok Sabha elections, the lower house is fast losing its charm .The lower house that was once represented by doyens like Indrajit Gupta, Somnath Chatterjee, Atal Behari Vajpayee, George Fernandes and even Chidambaram, Jaipal Reddy and Mani Shankar Aiyer has none left to speak these days.. The media which had always clamoured to cover the Lok Sabha as it represented the men of the masses and it always had some of the most learned men and best orators cutting across party lines, is now feeling quite upset as excepting Sushma Swaraj of the BJP who is now a minister, there is not a single orator left in the Lok Sabha. And Sushma too can be great when she is in the opposition. Sitting on the treasury benches her oratory may not be as effective. As for the veterans, L K Advani was never a great orator like Atal Behari Vajpayee. Mulayam Singh Yadav is not a very good speaker. . . All the great speakers are gone. Pranab Mukherjee is now President of India and Sharad Pawar has moved to the Rajya Sabha. In the BJP only Advani and Sushma are left and to give them competition from the Congress is Kamal Nath who is not known for his oratory skills but for floor management. Mallikarjun Kharge though surprisingly delivered an excellent speech in the discussion on the President’s Joint Session continues to be under scrutiny. The Congress is banking mainly on Captain Amarinder Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia. The SP has only Mulayam; the NCP, Tariq Anwar and the CPI (M) has only Mohd Salim to bank upon. Compared to the 16th Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha is likely to be interesting as all the great speakers of the day are assembled in the Upper House. Arun Jaitley of the BJP, Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, Sharad Pawar of the NCP and Sitaram Yechury of the CPI (M).
Modi has to pacify disgruntled BJP members of new Lok Sabha
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left many BJP leaders from various states unhappy. Uttarakhand gave three out of four MPs but got no minister. Himachal too gave all four MPs to BJP but not a single minister from Himachal has been inducted in the cabinet leaving everyone fretting and sulking including the former chief minister Dhumal who is known to be close to Narendra Modi. . Similarly Rajasthan also gave all 25 seats to the BJP but only one MP is given the ministerial position leaving Vasundhara Raje furious. Again Jual Oram a tribal and the only MP who got elected on the BJP ticket from Orissa has been made tribal affairs minister but his rival and a much junior Dharmendra Pradhan from Orissa but a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar has managed the plum petroleum portfolio leaving Oram and his supporters unhappy. Pradhan who got the plum portfolio because of his proximity to Arun Jaitley has set his eyes on the chief ministership of the state. He was heard bragging that he would replace Naveen Patnaik in 2019. All this has left Oram’s supporters very unhappy. The Jats who voted for the BJP too are unhappy. There are 10 Jat MPs but only one Jat minister. The Jat MPs are threatening that they would not support the BJP in the forth coming elections. (IPA)