By Nora Chopra
BJP TARGETS NEW VOTERS TO ENSURE MAJORITY IN 2019 LS POLL
The Bharatiya Janata Party that was known to be an upper caste party. Mainly a Brahmin Party converted it into a Modi OBC party in the recent assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. They took the Brahmins for granted after the Congress pushed them out both in Uttarakhand and UP. In UP assembly elections, the BJP gave 11 tickets to Apna Dal out of which the party won nine seats while the Congress got hundred plus seats from its ally Samajwadi Party but it could win only 7 seats. Out of the seven seats, three are now ready to move over to the BJP and the Congress would be left over with just 4 MLAs. While the Congress vice president is abroad, Narendra Modi has already started working on his agenda for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.. According to the government data, there would be one 1.78 crore new voters in 2019 Lok Sabha poll. Modi has instructed all his MPs to work on the class 12 students and prepare them because they will be casting their votes for the first time in 2019. . Not only that, their caste arithmetic has been assessed. Modi Shah duo could successfully entice the non yadav and the non jatav dalits reducing Mayawati to insignificance. Now it is up to Mayawati to retrieve her dalit votes. And whether she would enter into any alliance with SP to ensure tough fight to BJP in Lok Sabha poll.
DIGGY LOST IN GOA DUE TO CONGRESS FACTION FIGHTING
Digvijay Singh landed in Panjim to install a Congress government but finally he failed. The moment he was in Panjim, he sent a request to the governor Mridula Sinha for an appointment but the appointment could not materialise as there was no consensus on who would be the leader. The first appointment was scheduled for 1 pm and then rescheduled for 2 pm and then 3 pm but he failed to arrive at a consensus on any leader. Congre Singh realised that ground was slipping from under the Congress feet when the GFP leader Vijay Sardesai did not return his call. Even Churchill Aliemao of the NCP kept waiting but when it as too late, he indicated to his bosses that now he cannot wait any more and had no option but to support the BJP. .Realizing that he has lost out, Diggy sent a letter seeking appointment with the governor. The next day the BJP paraded its MLAs before the governor to prove its majority.
JITIN PRASAD MAY BE NEW PCC PRESIDENT IN UTTAR PRADESH
Jitin Prasad is likely to be the new PCC chief of Uttar Pradesh. After the Congress defeat in the recent assembly elections in the state, UP is now on the priority list of the Congress high command. In its bid to counter the BJP in 2019 general election, Congress leadership is planning to overhaul the UPCC. The current PCC chief Raj Babbar wants to quit. Babbar is already got busy with his film work. Second he is not keen to continue on the post. UP being a caste ridden state, the Congress should have seen that the PCC chief belongs to a caste which is important in the state and the caste that has been supporting the Congress. Raja khatri does not belong to a caste which is relevant either in the state or in the Congress. Before Raj Babbar too, the Congress had appointed Nirmal Khatri also a Khatri from Faizabad who had no base in UP. He proved to be a disaster. Babbar’s usp was that he had a secular and a cosmopolitan face, that he could draw people from every strata of society. He was an ex Samajwadi and an acceptable face among the muslims of UP. He was the damaad of the Muslim community as he is married to the daughter of one of the most illustrious Muslim families of UP. But in the polarisation game of Narendra Modi, he too failed to make any mark, now having led the Congress to suffer a defeat in UP. The Congress high command now has zeroed in on the young Brahmin Jitin Prasad who has a good image among the Congress workers.
DISCONTENT RAMPANT AMONG DALIT SUPPORTERS OF CONGRESS
Discontent is simmering within the Dalit leadership of the Congress against the Rahul Gandhi appointee K. Raju, the chief of the Dalit cell of AICC. The Dalit leadership feels that there is no point in staying in the Congress as the Dalits have moved over to the AAP in Delhi. And the results of the assembly polls in UP show that maximum non Yadav Dalits have voted for the BJP. Questions are being raised over the sagacity of Rahul Gandhi grooming the erstwhile IAS officers like K Raju and P L Punia as the Dalit leaders of the Congress. Both these leaders have no base but today they are holding top positions in the Congress party .While Raju, an Andhra Pradesh fellow, is chief of the Dalit cell of AICC and Punia was made chief of SC ST commission. According to Congress sources there was no dearth of Dalit leaders in the Congress whose services can be utilized but they are being ignored.
KAMAL NATH WANTS TO LEAD CONGRESS IN MADHYA PRADESH POLLS
The results of the Punjab assembly polls and the emergence of captain Amarinder Singh as a strong leader who could defeat the Akali-BJP alliance, is giving similar ideas to other Congress leaders. Kamal Nath who despite being a general secretary of the AICC, has never stepped into 24 Akbar Road has suddenly become very ambitious to become the PCC chief of Madhya Pradesh. Nath a protégé of Sanjay Gandhi is one of the few Congress leaders who has been winning elections from Chindwara in MP. This Lok Sabha member now wants the gaddi of the saffron state of Madhya Pradesh. Congress supporters of Kamal Nath are saying that he alone can lead the MP Congress to victory in the 2018 assembly elections. He has the stature like Amarinder Singh and he can give a tough fight to the present CM of BJP Shivraj Singh Chouhan. (IPA)