Fly on the Wall
Harish Gupta
Testing time for Priyanka
After burning her boats in UP Assembly polls badly, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, AICC General Secretary, has taken a plunge in Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections being held on November 12. Perhaps, she thinks that the ground is fertile due to price rise and huge anti-incumbency against Chief Minister Jairam Thakur. The Congress has promised to revive the old pension scheme to lure the government employees who play a decisive role. The BJP high command took a cautious decision not to replace Thakur. It must be remembered that the BJP had changed CM three times within six month in Uttarakhand and its strategy paid rich dividends and Congress licked the dust. For Himachal Pradesh, the BJP virtually declared that elections will be fought under the leadership of Modi. The Congress campaign has not picked up so far as Rahul Gandhi is busy with his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in southern states. Sonia Gandhi has decided to play cool after handing over the reins to Mallikarjune Kharge. With Priyanka Gandhi throwing her hat in the Himachal ring, political analysts feel it's a risky decision. No Congress central leader worth a salt is seen campaigning in Himachal. The BJP, on the other hand, has pumped in its entire machinery, right from PM to Amit Shah, J P Nadda and others. It conducted three major internal poll surveys in the last two months to short-list candidates to ward off anti-incumbency.
Priyanka's experiments in Punjab by throwing her weight behind Navjot Singh Sidhu or promising chief ministerial chair to Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, failed miserably. Her only connection with Himachal is that she owns a piece of land there. Will the gamble pay-off? No one is sure.
EC's Gujarat riddle
PM Modi has been advocating simultaneous elections for LoK Sabha, Assemblies and other elected bodies once in five years. It's different that no formal step was taken by the government or the Election Commission or any other institution. Lately, Modi has also stopped talking about it. The ruling BJP may have realized that simultaneous polls may not enhance its own electoral prospects. But the EC has done something unthinkable when it announced Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh to be held on November 12 and did not declare poll dates for Gujarat. The EC, in the past, has been declaring poll dates simultaneously in these two states and the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into effect the same day. The EC has the power to club election dates if two or more states go to polls within a span of six months. In the case of Himachal and Gujarat, the difference was less than a month and the EC was expected to follow precedents and norms. The BJP is reaping the harvest as no MCC is in force in Gujarat and plenty of freebies are being announced to lure the electorates. Modi distributed 50 lakh PMJAY-MA Yojana Ayushman cards on October 17 saying, “ for the 50 lakh families an Ayushman card is a 5 lakh rupee ATM. This is an ATM card that will keep giving benefits of free treatment every year.”
Ever since AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal declared free water and power and all adult women will be given Rs 1000 each per month in Gujarat, the BJP needed time to counter Kejriwal by its own freebies. The Gujarat government announced that every household will get two gas cylinders free every year. In addition, CNG and PNG rates were slashed by Rs 6 and Rs 7 per unit. The PM has traveled to Gujarat three times in October alone to launch projects worth nearly Rs one lakh crore. Amul dairy made an unusual announcement, unheard before, saying Rs two per liter hike in rates will not be applicable in Gujarat.
Who will be LoP in Rajya Sabha
With
the new Congress president taking over the reins, all eyes are set on
who will be the new Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Rajya Sabha in
place of Mallikarjun Kharge. In Lok Sabha also, the Congress has to
appoint a Deputy Leader. It is argued that LoP in Rajya Sabha should
be from North India considering the fact that the region remains
unrepresented in terms of key positions. The Leader of the Congress
in Lok Sabha is from West Bengal (Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury) and party
president is from Karnataka. P Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu) and Jairam
Ramesh (Karnataka) are from southern states. Therefore, LoP in Rajya
Sabha should be from the Hindi heartland, it is being argued. There
are reports that Priyanka Gandhi wants her protege Pramod Tiwari to
be appointed while Rahul Gandhi is keen on Digvijay Singh who is
incharge of Bharat Jodo Yatra. Similarly, in Lok Sabha too, the tie
is between Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tiwari for the Deputy Leader's
post. Interestingly, Sonia Gandhi in her capacity as Chairman of the
Congress Parliamentary Party, will be making these nominations and
not Kharge.
