By Nora Chopra
RAHUL GANDHI UNDER FIRE FROM CONGRESSMEN FOR POLL DEBACLE
The Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is under the scanner in the aftermath of the Congress performance in the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Assembly polls. Demoralization has taken over the rank and file of the Congress party particularly in the UP leadership. The Congress leaders are upset with Rahul for aligning with Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party and for dancing to the tunes of Prashant Kishore. The Congress high command was under tremendous pressure from within the Congress workers in UP to go alone in the state. When Rahul Gandhi started his kisan yatra, the Congress workers who had become totally defunct over the years, had suddenly found a new life, and new hope of revival in the most populous state where their party had ruled for more than forty years .,. The workers in UP had suddenly become active but after the alliance, they were so demoralised that they stopped to work for the party. And in the elections, the Congress workers, mainly upper castes, supported the BJP. This alliance also spelt disaster by pushing the brahmins to the BJP lap from the Congress not only in UP but even in Uttarakhand. After projecting Sheila Dixit who was CM in Delhi for three consecutive terms and the bahu of one of the most illustrious Brahmin families of Uttar Pradesh, she was humiliated. The treatment meted out to her perhaps became the nemesis of the Congress. The brahmins who were not happy with Narendra Modi and have supported the Congress even when it was out of power, sought shelter in the BJP as they do not trust the SP or BSP. Similarly in Uttarakhand, the way Harish Rawat treated the brahmins that one after the other brahmin leaders left the Congress to join the BJP. The brahmin mukt Congress in Uttarakhand reached its pinnacle when the four times chief minister of united UP and two times CM of Uttarakhand, Narain Dutt Tiwari left the Congress to join the BJP. The exodus of the brahmins was then complete in an upper caste state dominated by Brahmins and rajputs.. The result was obvious and Harish Rawat lost both his seats to an unknown brahmin Rajesh Shukla.
CONGRESS FOCUSED ONLY ON MUSLIM VOTES IN UTTAR PRADESH
Another factor being attributed to the Congress leadership is that all three Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Raj Babbar were only targeting the Muslim votes when there were three other parties who were vying for the same. The votes got divided between the SP, BSP and Owaisi. Even Ajit Singh was eyeing the Muslim Jat votes. . As the blame game is on, many are even pointing at the infighting within the Congress for the defeat of some important leaders like Jitin Prasad. Prasad is heard blaming Pramod Tiwari and Raj Babbar for his defeat. They did not allow Rahul to visit his constituency and the result is before everyone.
SAMAJWADI PARTY REBELS LED TO CONGRESS DEFEAT
The alliance with Samajwadi Party was detrimental to the Congress victory for more than one reason. While Akhilesh Yadav gave more than hundred seats to the Congress, Akhilesh do not bother to withdraw the SP candidates who were given tickets by the Samajwadi Party in the constituencies allotted to Congress. There were seventeen such constituencies where the SP and Congress were fighting each other and cutting into each others votes. This is being seen as a major factor that helped BJP to win these seats. Some of the important Congress leaders had to face these SP rebels like in Amethi Amita (Modi) Singh, the wife of Sanjay Singh, the chairman of the Congress election campaign committee. Amita lost to his first wife Garima Singh of the BJP. Because of Gayatri Prajapati , the Congress lost its sitting seat because SP took away their sitting MLA Maavi Ali and fielded him as SP candidate. The result was that both the Congress candidate and the SP candidate lost. Similarly, in Saharanpur Imran Masood lost election because of the rebel SP candidate. Congress workers are alleging that the SP targeted all the winning seats of the Congress
NITISH KUMAR WORKING FOR A NONRSS PRESIDENT IN JULY POLL
With the sweeping victory in Uttar Pradesh, the spotlight has obviously turned towards the BJP. But days before the announcement of the results of the assembly elections in five states, the Bihar chief minister quietly called on his Orissa counterpart Naveen Patnaik to hold discussion the forthcoming presidential elections. Reliable sources claim that there was near agreement between the two leaders that the new President to be elected in July this year , should not have any links with the RSS.. It is being said that Nitish is keen to bring all non-BJP parties under one umbrella. That way, the presidential polls could witness a fierce competition forcing the prime minister to look for a consensus candidate. but with the BJP’s stellar performance in the UP elections, the strategy of the mahagathbandhan is unlikely to take off .
CONGRESSMEN ARE UNHAPPY WITH DIGVIJAY SINGH FOR HIS LAPSES
In the wake of the Congress defeat in Uttar Pradesh, overhauling of the party has become imminent . Among those who are likely to be shown the door in AICC are Digvijay Singh, B K Hari Prasad and Mohan Prakash. Complaints are piling up against these three leaders There are allegations against Digvijay Singh for being hand in gloves with the BJP. It is a long standing allegation against Digvijay that in Madhya Pradesh, it is he who is not allowing the Congress to prosper. He is also being held responsible for the Hindu polarization because of his pro- Muslim utterances and was kept out of the Bihar and UP election campaigns. (IPA)
The brahmins who were not happy with Narendra Modi and have supported the Congress even when it was out of power, sought shelter in the BJP as they do not trust the SP or BSP. Similarly in Uttarakhand, the way Harish Rawat treated the brahmins that one after the other brahmin leaders left the Congress to join the BJP.