By Nora Chopra
Priyanka might take over as AICC Gen Secy in April Priyanka Gandhi who has emerged as a major player in the Congress Party is tipped to be the general Secretary of the AICC after the Uttar Pradesh elections are over. However, she has been playing her role covertly till now and had been reluctant to come out and take on responsibility openly as this would not have sent the right signal for her brother’s performance. But now she is forced to play an open role in the party. Her mother the Congress president Sonia Gandhi has decided to retire and she is not participating in the party‘s crucial activities. That apart, there is a feeling in the party that there was need for her to help Rahul due to his lack of political acumen as well as in the absence of any proper advice and/ or guidance particularly in the wake of their mother’s absence. Priyanka has been playing a backroom part in the party for quite some time. But her role in the recent deal with the Samajwadi Party going against Rahul’s idea of going alone in the UP elections, has already made her the star leader of the Congress Party. Priyanka Gandhi is said to have got certain internal surveys done on the basis of which she ensured that the Congress should not go alone in the polls and thus insisted that the party aligns with the Samajwadi Party. When the so called man with a midas touch Ghulam Nabi Azadi failed in his negotiations with SP leaders, then it was Priyanka’s intervention that brokered the alliance with the SP. It was at her residence that Akhilesh and Dimple came over dinner to meet Rahul after he returned from his sojourn abroad. That was the beginning of the talks of alliance between the two parties. In fact the Janvedna sammelan against demonetisation is said to be her idea. She might not have been visible there but her presence was felt there as she had monitored the entire preparation. She was the last one to leave the venue the day before. In fact the speech, about which Rahul is receiving all the praises, was said to have been written by her. Priyanka is the latest speech writer of Rahul Gandhi. 2019 Lok Sabha elections will see her in full form when she is likely to not only campaign in a major way but she is likely to contest the Parliament elections from her family borough Rae Bareilly in the light of Sonia Gandhi’s retirement.
BJP facing innumerable problems in UP Polls.No party is likely to get a clear majority in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. It is going to be a hung assembly, say the internal surveys done by both the BJP and the Congress. The BJP had won 73 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections out of the total of 80, but it has failed to give a CM face in the absence of credibility and caste factor. The Brahmins have been the BJP‘s support base in UP but ever since Narendra Modi and Amit Shah took charge of the saffron party, they have been focusing ,more on the OBCs and the dalits thus giving rise to disillusionment within the Brahmin community. On the other hand, the rank and file of the BJP is extremely upset over the party giving more tickets to outsiders than the BJP cadres. Besides, this time the party has not spared any seat for Anupriya Patel’s Apna Dal. Thus the kurmi community is unlikely to vote for BJP as Anupriya Patel may not campaign for the BJP. Hence the BJP will end up much short of majority. It may even end up as the third party.
Samajwadi Party may lose in Jat Belt The coming together of Congress and the SP has given some boost to the staggering fortunes of the Samajwadi Party but it is still not seen as a party that can get a comfortable majority. First, the Mahabharat in the Yadav Parivar is expected to have its toll on the prospects of Akhilesh’s Samajwadi Party candidates. Shivpal Yadav who has been feeling totally ditched by brother Mulayam and nephew Akhilesh, is not sitting quiet. It was Shivpal who is known as the vote getter in Mulayam’s party .but his isolation in the party has left him totally disillusioned. Though he is contesting the elections on the SP ticket but his followers and friends who have been denied tickets, have joined the BSP in the last one week. The latest being Mukhtar Ansari. BSP supremo too has expressed her sympathies with Shivpal. As a result there could be a division in the SP votes, particularly Muslim votes. Mayawati has given nearly hundred tickets to Muslims but their first target is only the BJP and they would vote for the candidate who can defeat the BJP. The Muslims would do only tactical voting. In west UP where there are elections in the first phase the SP is unlikely to get the votes of the Muslims that form 25 per cent of the total 19 per cent population of UP in West UP. There is absence of the SP’s core voters- the Yadavs in the entire region of Saharanpur to Agra that constitutes the basic belt of west UP. In west UP, the BSP is expected to sweep the polls with 19 per cent Dalits in West UP and 25 per cent, of Muslims. Surprisingly Ajit Singh’s RLD is likely to do well in this Jat dominated region. Unlike 2014 Lok Sabha elections, where the 17 per cent jats voted for the BJP in the aftermath of the Muzaffernagar riots thus breaking the social alliance between the jats and the muslims. But indications suggest that the jats are back with Ajit Singh. and he is likely to increase his strength in the UP assembly from 9 to 12 to 14 seats . It is seen as a blunder on the part of Akhilesh Yadav not forming a grand alliance including RLD just on the belief that Congress alone would be able to consolidate the muslim votes in west UP. If he would have formed the grand alliance, then he would have emerged as the clear winner.
Prashant Kishore advising Uttarakhand Congress on polls The question being asked these days in political circles is where is Prashant Kishore – the much touted adviser to Rahul Gandhi on election strategy. Many Congressmen are heard asking this question these days. Congress leadership in Uttar Pradesh is fuming with anger over the so called PK. PK is charged with giving the wrong advice to Rahul Gandhi over projecting Sheila Dikshit and then abandoning her by which the Congress would lose its Brahmin support base. After being driven out of UP by the Congress, PK went to Punjab and informed Rahul that the Congress is winning. Captain Amrinder Singh planned the election campaign and strategy on his own agenda without listening to PK. So PK went to Uttarakhand and he is advising the state PCC and the chief minister Harish Rawat. (IPA)
’