Wickets have started falling even before the poll game has started in a big way. Former Union minister, Bollywood star and loudmouth Shatrughan Sinha has been denied the BJP ticket in Bihar this time. His seat has been allotted to Union Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. That was expected though, given the kind of leg-pulling that Sinha did in recent times to embarrass Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and by extension the BJP. A non-entity in politics outside Bihar, he had reached up to Chennai to drum up the anti-BJP campaign at the national level, and he followed this up with an appearance at a rally organised by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata to train her guns on the BJP and PM Modi.
In the normal course, the BJP would have shown the door to Sinha then and there; but nothing of the sort happened for the reason that Sinha has his own sphere of influence in Bihar and perhaps some support bases outside the state too. Like glass, shotgun Sinha had to be handled with care. Together with Yashwant Sinha, trouble of a minor nature could be in store for the BJP in Bihar. Both Sinhas are past their prime, and Yashwant Sinha’s son has been suitably accommodated in the BJP and the government. Another BJP bigwig who was not given the ticket this time is Shanta Kumar, former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh. In this case, however, his protégé and transport minister Kishan Kapoor has inherited the ticket. Shanta Kumar is 84 and his exclusion is obviously linked to geriatrics.
The Congress party is treading a more careful course this time by accommodating senior leaders based on their chances of winning the polls. Rahul Gandhi’s reported move to get fielded from a tribal belt in Kerala, the Wayanad constituency, may or may not have anything to do with perceptions about his electoral prospects in Amethi, the Nehru family’s pocket borough for many decades. An easy win for Rahul Gandhi is likely from this southern constituency for the reason that the BJP is not a winning force in entire Kerala, and has little influence in this constituency. The main opponent in the constituency is a low profile Communist nominee. Though the Congress and the Communists fight for power in Kerala, they are game for adjustments, and this could as well happen here too. No one thinks the Communists would go the whole hog out to defeat Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad.