By Nora Chopra
PRIYANKA GANDHI MAY CONTEST NEXT LOK SABHA ELECTIONS
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is sure to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Rai Bareilly in 2019 in place of her mother, Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi will relinquish both her post and her Lok Sabha constituency because of her health and age, thereby setting an example for the rest of the ageing Congress leaders. It is expected that the longest serving Congress president Sonia Gandhi whose term came to an end in March this year after completing 18 years in office would hand over the post to her son Rahul Gandhi. But the only condition would be that Rahul has to prove himself and be successful in the Uttar Pradesh elections. Rahul will be anointed president most likely after the UP elections depending on the results of the party . In 2019 if he manages to become the PM, then the post will be handed over to Priyanka Gandhi.
AMIT SHAH’S FUTURE DEPENDS ON RESULTS OF UTTAR PRADESH POLL
The battle of Uttar Pradesh will decide whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP national president Amit Shah would win or perish. Both Modi and Shah are leaving no stone unturned to win Uttar Pradesh. Despite the age embargo slapped on Najma Heptullah and even Anandiben Patel the erstwhile chief minister of Gujarat were told to quit because they had reached the age of 75 thus resulting in a revolt against Shah, but Kalraj Mishra has been spared. Mishra is a Brahmin and has been sulking even after he was made a minister with an insignificant portfolio of small and medium industries. He is also 74 plus but he was spared with an eye on the UP elections when the Congress party is out to woo the Brahmin community. The BJP cannot afford to alienate the Brahmin leader of the state. Now it is the turn of another sulking veteran leader of the BJP Lalji Tandon. But reports are that Tandon may be shunted out of UP politics before 2017 to the cosy environment of Raj Bhavan in Bhopal to allow Kalraj Mishra to operate in Uttar Pradesh.
AMAR SINGH WANTS MULAYAM SINGH YADAV TO BE CHIEF MINISTER
Is Amar Singh planning a new party with Shivpal Yadav in the lead? Amar Singh who has the reputation of being a family breaker is once again at it. The problems in the first family of Uttar Pradesh started with Amar Singh’s entry in the Samajwadi Party against the wishes of the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and Mulayam’s cousin professor Ram Gopal Yadav. Both Ram Gopal and Akhilesh opposed it tooth and nail but Shivpal who is closer to Mulayam succeeded more than Shivpal. It is the money factor that finally won. And Amar Singh got the entry but intensified the fight within the SP family. Mulayam Singh divested Akhilesh of the post of the state party presidentship. It is said that Mulayam took the step after a two hour meeting with Amar Singh .In retaliation Akhilesh divested uncle Shivpal of the three meaty portfolios. Earlier in the day he even sacked Singhal the UP chief secretary, supposed to be close to Amar Singh and Shivpal Yadav. After this, Shivpal has threatened to resign. And Akhilesh has blamed Amar Singh for the problems being faced by his family. But though he has been asked by Mulayam to wait but pressure has mounted on Mulayam to take over as CM again.
HRD MINISTRY IS ALWAYS A TROUBLE SPOT
HRD ministry troubles refuse to go. National Book Trust which is mandated to produce good books- literary or critical analysis at affordable cost, was a bastion of the Left liberals. Now it is headed by Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman with Dr. Rita Chowdhury as Director. But these persons are at loggerheads. So much that Chowdhury often is seen hobnobbing with Left liberals who are staunch critics of Prime Minister Modi. Problem is Chowdhury’s husband Chandra Mohan Patowary is Assam’s Commerce and Industry Minister and a powerful BJP state leader. How will Prakash Javadekar get out of this problem?
RAHUL GANDHI IGNORES BRAHMIN LEADERS IN POLL CAMPAIGN
When the Congress leadership is projecting a Brahmin Sheila Dikshit as its chief ministerial candidate the self claimed biggest Brahmin leader of the Congress party from Uttar Pradesh Pandit Janardhan Diwedi has been kept out of the UP campaign. Diwedi who just loves to be addressed as Panditji on the likes of Kamlapati Tripathi has been side lined in the party after he gave certain anti Rahul statements and certain pro upper caste statements, continues to sit in AICC When the entire Congress campaign is at its peak. In Uttar Pradesh, despite the party leadership’s decision to project the Brahmin leadership, panditji is not being involved in any way in the Congress campaign. Rahul Gandhi who is campaigning alone with just Ghulam Nabi Azad, has not taken with him any Brahmin leader. The thinking in the Congress is that Rahul whose grandmother was a Brahmin by birth is a the biggest Brahmin in the Congress .
NO TRACE OF SHEILA DIKSHIT IN RAHUL GANDHI’S YATRA
Sheila Dikshit, the former CM of Delhi might have been projected by the Congress as the Brahmin chief minister for Uttar Pradesh but she is nowhere to be seen in the campaign. Sheila, the Congress candidate for chief ministership is missing in the entire campaign. She is neither present on the posters nor in slogans, neither is she around Rahul Gandhi who is campaigning alone on his khat yatra. Rahul’s managers who organised Rahul’s khat yatra have landed in trouble after the khat chaos in Deoria. Congress workers are questioning the wisdom of his managers and even of Prashant Kishore who was instrumental in Rahul taking on the yatra. There are severe criticisms for keeping the CM candidate out of Rahul’s campaign. It is not the first time that Rahul is campaigning in UP. He has campaigned in UP earlier but the result has been nil. Just a month ago Rahul had introduced Dikshit as the CM candidate with great fanfare. But not only has Sheila been missing but even the PCC chief Raj Babbar and chairperson of the campaign committee Sanjay Singh, are absent in Rahul’s yatra.
BJP LEADERS HAPPY AT GEELANI MISBEHAVING WITH OPPOSITION
When Hurriyat leader SAS Geelani sent back CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury and other opposition leaders from his home, refusing to meet them, the word spread quickly that the octogenarian separatist has snubbed the all party delegation’s overtures. But the government was very happy that Geelani didn’t meet Yechury and company. In the return flight to Delhi, a minister “congratulated” some Opposition leaders that they have “exposed” the Hurriyat leaders. “The whole world could see we came to talk to them. But it was Geelani, who refused to enter into dialogue,” said a senior BJP leader. (IPA)