KICHAAD MAIN KAMAL: There is a desperate fight going on both in Goa and in the other states in the country to topple non-BJP governments and destroy rival Congress party.
By Rajan Narayan
If Congress MLAs and Members of Parliament (MPs) keep defecting from the party it is because the leadership at the national level has collapsed. The Sonia Dynasty no longer has any control over even its MPs and MLAs and is unable to enforce any kind of discipline. The ground reality is that the Congress has nothing to offer by way of money or positions of power to promote loyalty.
IF there is a specific reason why there is a flood of Congress MPs and MLAs rushing to embrace the BJP, it is not money as it is made out to be. The stories going around is that the BJP has offered Rs40 crore each to the 11 Congress MLAs to join the BJP. An amount of Rs40 crore is chickenfeed for senior Congress leader like former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and Calangute MLA Michael Lobo. I recall attending the weddings of both Digambar Kamat’s daughter in Margao and his son at Taleigao Community Hall. Reportedly he must have more than Rs100 crore on these weddings.
Goa is not the only state where Congress MPs and MLAs are jumping on to the BJP bandwagon. In the state of Madhya Pradesh the very senior loyal Congress leader Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia believed that he was the best candidate for the chief minister’s job. There was a fight between Kamal Nath who was very close to the Gandhi family and Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia. In disguise Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP promptly allotted him a seat in the Rajya Sabha. They also appointed him Civil Aviation Minister, the same portfolio held by his father Madhavrao Scindia in the Rajiv Gandhi government.
In Assam, Tarun Gogoi, a veteran Congress leader was the chief minister for more than a decade right up to the 2016 election. But since 2016 the BJP has taken over the crucial North-Eastern state. Assam is the oldest of the states which are collectively called the Seven Sisters – namely, which includes Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. The main issue in Assam was the huge influx of refugees from Bangladesh. There was a time a couple of decades ago when the then student leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta wanted a Citizens Bill to distinguish between original residents of Assam and the refugees from Bangladesh. The BJP further communalized the issue which had already taken a Hindu-Muslim conflict. It is my bribing and wooing the tribal vote that the BJP manage to take over Assam.
Indeed, most of the North North-East states, were controlled by the Congress when Luizinho Falerio was general secretary of the North-East. It may be recalled that the master political strategist Prashant Kishore primarily persuaded Luizinho to join the Trinamool Congress so that Mamata Banarjeeg could get control of the North Eastern states.
MAJOR SPLIT
THERE hasbeen a major split in the Congress party because of the blind insistence of Sonia Gandhi that Rahul Gandhi must be the next chief minister. The attempt to find a consensus candidate to take on Narendra Modi in the 2024 elections did not succeed primarily due to strong opposition to Rahul Gandhi. Reportedly, this Prince Charming spends more time with his firang girlfriend then the working of the Congress party.
A group of 22 senior Congress leaders headed by veteran lawyer Kapil Sibal have revolted against the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. The irony is that as of now the Congress does not have a party president since Rahul Gandhi refuses to assume the responsibility. Even if senior Congress leaders who were willing to concede that the Sonia Gandhi family has the greatest appeal among voters, most Congress leaders believe that Priyanka Vadra Gandhi would make for a better Congress president.
Prashant Kishore in fact was to join the Congress party to promote opposition unity to fight Narendra Modi in the 2024 elections. The deal fell through due to the insistence of doting mother Sonia that only Rahul Gandhi may succeed as president of the Congress. The Congress which used to control most of the states in the country has been reduced to leading only two states. In the days of its glory the Congress controlled a large part of the north India including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Assam and the North East.
MAJOR OBSTACLE
EVEN the Southern state of Karnataka which was a Congress bastion has now fallen to the BJP. It is actually only the South which is the major obstacle for the BJP coming back to power in 2024. All the Southern states with the exception of Karnataka are ruled by regional parties. This include Tamil Nadu where Stalin of the DMK is the chief minister and who is totally opposed to Narendra Modi. The states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are controlled by regional parties. The LEFT controls Kerala.
Unfortunately, besides the Congress there are no other national parties which have appeal across the country. The Nationalist Congress party of Sharad Pawar is limited to Maharashtra. The Janata Dal is again only in power in partnership with the BJP in Bihar. No doubt Mamata Banerjee is seen as a formidable leader. She is the physical manifestation of the much worshipped and revered Goddess Kali who has currently become the object of a controversy. This followed a poster which show the goddess Kali as a goddess with a passion for meat and daru.
The problem is that Mamata Banarjee does not have an all-India image at village level. Even the Aam Aadmi party with its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal has done better in states outside Delhi. For instance, AAP managed to oust the Congress from Punjab. It is in the interests of the country that the entire Gandhi Dynasty should be thrown out of the Congress.
Somebody like PC Chidambaram would probably make a better leader. It has been proved that leaders outside the Gandhi family are capable of managing the Congress. It was Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh who liberalized the Indian economy and ushered in a new era of development. There are lots of very competent Congress leaders. But Sonia Gandhi will not allow them to come up to replace son Rahul Gandhi.