By Nora Chopra
RAHUL GANDHI TO BE CONGRESS NOMINEE FOR PRIME MINISTERSHIP IN 2019
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will be the prime ministerial candidate in 2019 Lok Sabha elections against Narendra Modi. He indicated this in an off the record interaction with a group of journalists when he rejected the idea of supporting Nitish Kumar as the PM from the anti-BJP front. The journalists asked him whether the Congress would support Nitish as the opposition candidate for the PM’s post against Modi. On the face of it he was quite evasive and reluctant to give any answer in yes or no. but all indications suggested that the Congress would like to have the post and Rahul would be the candidate. His supporters have already started the chorus. Captain Amarinder Singh, the new convert to the Rahul faction after an adamant Rahul relented and gave his consent to make him the Punjab PCC chief, Captain has said in Punjab that Rahul is the prime ministerial material. He has however urged him to take over as party president first. Joining the Captain is Sachin Pilot who too has demanded that he should take over the party. Unlike previous days when Rahul was asked about his coronation, at the interaction he appeared quite soft and said it was for the party to decide. His statement is being seen that he has no option but to patch up with the party seniors.
BIG SCRAMBLE IN BIHAR CONGRESS FOR BECOMING MINISTERS
The Congress can never change. Getting 27 seats in Bihar has given them the boost and arrogance to boast. Rahul Gandhi refuses to admit that the Congress got the seats not because of joining the alliance. He is of the opinion that it was the compulsion of the leaders of the grand alliance to take the Congress with it. He is supposed to have told some journalists that without the Congress, it would have been difficult to get the kind of victory the grand alliance has got. At the party level, the scramble to become a minister has already begun. Ashok Choudhury the present PCC chief of Bihar, who is taking the credit for the victory, is a front runner to become a minister in the Nitish government. But disputing his claims is Ashok Ram also a dalit and he has the majority support in the party. Ram is a veteran and much senior to Choudhury. He has been the five times MLA plus he was a Congress working committee member. . . The Congress is set to get five seats in the Bihar cabinet. The names that are being discussed include Ashok Ram a dalit, VS Dubey a Brahmin, Anita Bhushan, a bhumihar, Sadanand Singh, a kurmi and Javed Khan. a muslim..
K C TYAGI WORKED HARD FOR SUCCESS OF GRAND ALLIANCE IN BIHAR
As the Nitish Kumar was leading the campaign in Patna, the chief architect of the grand alliance were Sharad Yadav, the president of JD(U) and his man Friday KC Tyagi . Both the JD(U) leaders worked silently behind the scene. While Sharad Yadav worked with alliance partners, particularly his caste cousin Laloo Prasad Yadav , it was KC who did the ground work. He managed the Delhi media and was seen on TV channels. He coordinated between the media and Prashant Kishore who managed the successful campaign of the grand alliance. .
CHANAKYA’S BIHAR EXIT POLL SURVEY WAS MOTIVATED
Though most surveys that covered the exit polls proved wrong, but the most shocking was the survey done by today’s Chanakya. Chanakya who proved right in three previous surveys of Lok Sabha 2009, 2014 and Delhi assembly elections of 2015 was supposed to be the most dependable of all the surveys. . Chanakya is now blaming the computers. Calling it a technical mistake .But the buzz in the capital is that this survey was for money. But there was only one agency Axis My India that could catch the mood of Bihar. . The agency gave 176 to 182 seats to the grand alliance. But the TV channel that had assigned the agency to do the survey could not gather courage to show in the channel the survey. But in this age of twitter and social media, nothing can be kept a secret these days. Axis survey was circulated in internet.
SENIOR CONGRESS LEADERS CLOSE TO RAHUL ARE SAFE
His contribution to the Bihar verdict is nil but CP Joshi, one of the three Rahul favourite general secretaries is the safest. There are umpteen number of complaints piling up against Joshi who was set to be dropped in the forthcoming Congress reshuffle. But his stars are on the zoom. He has been provided the breather by congress managing to win 27 seats in the Bihar assembly elections. Rahul Gandhi has indicated to journalists that the reshuffle will take place after the next round of elections. He has however dismissed the speculation that only young people will be inducted in the next AICC reshuffle. He told a group of journalists in an off the record conversation that these speculations are wrong as The Congress have to take everyone along . He said that his interest in youth was only when he was in charge of the youth congress but now he was no more the general secretary of the youth congress. Now he said that he was the vice president of the Congress He has to take everyone along
RAHUL GANDHI NOT ALLOWED TO SPEAK IN THE MIDDLE OF PROGRAMME
Last Saturday, in the Congress conclave at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies (RGICS), party vice president Rahul Gandhi came and sat among the viewers even as historians like Zoya Hasan were on stage. After listening to some historians speaking, Gandhi stood up and said he wants to speak. But to the astonishment of many party supporters, session moderator Ghulam Nabi Azad-also in the dais bluntly told Gandhi that he can’t speak now as he is slated to give a full speech at the end of the function. (IPA)