Although political parties across all States have given tickets to members of political families, Maharashtra is leading the list with its numbers. Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Nitish Rane, son of Narayan Rane, Vishwajeet Kadam, son of veteran State leader Patang Rao Kadam, and Sunil Dutt’s daughter Priya Dutt have all been allotted tickets
The UPA Government has stopped working. Almost all the ministers are busy campaigning and the officers are busy speculating about the next Government. Even in the PMO only those files are being processed which are of routine nature and rather necessary for administrative decisions. Policy decisions are on hold too. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rarely goes to his office at South Block and is doing a majority of his work from his office at 7 RCR. The rate of processing of files has come down to 100 a day from the earlier 300.
Sources say that most of the decisions are being deferred for the next Government. Even the decision on a sensitive issue like constituting a committee on the Snoopgate issue in Gujarat has been left for the next Government. Probably, some work is being done in the Ministry of law only because the Government has to be present in the court at the time of proceedings in some cases.
WHAT HAPPENED TO SNOOPGATEIJ
For the first time the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has raised the issue of Snoopgate in Gujarat. Rahul raised this issue in Delhi and said that development in Gujarat means that the police is put behind women and their phones are tapped. Cobrapost and Gulail.com had exposed that Amit Shah had instructed stalking a woman on the direction of some ‘sahib’. After this exposé, the central Government had hurriedly announced the setting up of a committee to investigate the matter. The State Government has also set up a separate committee which is investigating. But the committee announced by the central Government has not been constituted yet. The Centre had announced that the committee would be set up under the chairmanship of either a retired or a serving judge but it is said that no one is ready to take charge of this committee.
Now, here is a million-dollar question: When the Government isn’t able to constitute a committee after three months of its announcement, how can Rahul Gandhi and the Congress blow this issue up during the electionsIJ It is said that the issue is being raised only due to a delay in setting up of the committee. In fact, party leaders are targeting law Minister Kapil Sibal for the delay.
PRAISING THE RIVAl
AAP candidate Kumar Vishwas, who is contesting from Amethi, and NCP candidate Praful Patel, who is fighting from Gondia-Bhandara, are somehow using Narendra Modi’s name while campaigning. Praful Patel has published a booklet to advertise his work with a photo of Narendra Modi pasted on it. Even ahead of the elections, Patel had praised Modi and supported the clean chit given by the SIT to Modi in the Gujarat riots case. The BJP had opposed Patel’s booklet but it seems that the NCP leader has been successful in his motive.
On the other hand, reportedly, when the BJP announced that Smriti Irani would fight against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi, Vishwas had claimed that he was a BJP supporter in an interview when he was asked about his choice between the Congress and BJP. He had praised the RSS highly and said that it was a nationalist organisation. He remembered that Nehru had incorporated the RSS into the Republic Day parade. Similarly earlier, Varun Gandhi, who is fighting from Sultanpur, had praised cousin and rival Rahul Gandhi for his work in Amethi.
BSP VS CONGRESS
Many leaders of the Congress favour an alliance with the BSP which seems to have been finalised at a national level. But the BSP has given a ticket to the son of Indira Gandhi’s assassin, thereby escalating tensions between the two parties. leaders of the Punjab Congress are aghast. However, it is also true that Mayawati is trying to distance her party from the Congress. She has given a ticket to Beant Singh’s son Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa from Fatehgarh Sahib. Sarabjeet Singh had contested earlier too but was not able to get support from any party. Although there is no polarisation whatsoever, the Congress leaders of the State are making it an issue.
MAHARASHTRA’S DYNASTIC POlITICS
Although political parties across all States have given tickets to members of political families, Maharashtra is leading the list with its numbers. Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, is contesting from his traditional seat Baramati. The Congress has given a ticket to Nitish Rane, son of Narayan Rane. Vishwajeet Kadam, son of veteran State leader Patang Rao Kadam, is contesting too. Senior minister Chagan Bhujbal himself is fighting from his nephew’s seat. The Congress has also given a ticket to Sunil Dutt’s daughter Priya Dutt and Murli Deora’s son Milind Deora.
Daughter of Vijay Gawi, Minister in the Cong-NCP Government, has been made a candidate by the BJP. Poonam Mahajan, daughter of Pramod Mahajan, is a BJP candidate where Abu Azmi’s son Farhan Azmi is also contesting the elections. The powerful leader of the Congress, Datta Meghe’s son Prakash Meghe is also a candidate of the party, while on the other hand, Prakash Patil’s son Pratik Patil is trying his luck on a Congress ticket.
ASHWANI IN SUPPORT OF JAIRAM
Ashwani Kumar, a member of Manmohan Singh’s “kitchen cabinet”, has supported an advice given by Jairam Ramesh. Ramesh has said that after a certain age leaders should take retirement from electoral politics. A Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, Ashwani Kumar, has also said that the party can utilise the retired leaders in various ways. According to him, such leaders can play a role in making policies and engage in backroom politics.
When Manmohan Singh was actively involved in politics, Kumar didn’t face any problem. In fact, he got a second stint in Rajya Sabha from Punjab and was given a Cabinet berth despite there being many ministers from the State. Probably, this is the reason for his support to Ramesh. Supposedly, Ramesh is the rising star of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi has full confidence in Ramesh. Therefore, Ashwani possibly feels that with Ramesh’s help, he can gain entry into Rahul’s team. But, it seems that after his role in the coal scam, his rehabilitation is a bit problematic now.
MODI WAVE
leaders of the Congress, the NCP and AAP are finally seeing the “Modi wave”. last week, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that the BJP will be the largest party and the NDA will become the largest alliance, and that the possibility of the formation of an NDA Government is very possible. Before that, AAP leader Arvind first said in an interview to a newspaper about the presence of a “Modi wave” and repeated the same during a fund-raising dinner at Nagpur. Now, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavhan has accepted that there is a “Modi wave” in the country. In a sense, he has accepted defeat and has presumed that the BJP and the NDA have a clear edge in this election.