Reports claim that Kejriwal doesn’t want Kumar Vishwas to get more votes than him. Further, various other tussles are occurring in the party — Vishwas vs Manish Sisodia and Manish Sisodia vs Sanjay Singh. Meanwhile, the Muslim face of the AAP, Maqsood ul Hasan Qazmi, has left the party along with founder member Ashwini Upadhyay
BSP supremo Mayawati is the most worried leader in UP. Before the start of the election process she was considered the most powerful against the BJP. After the first three phases of polling, her calculation has gone wrong and out of desperation she is now making absurd statements to save the Dalit-Muslim equation. Recently, in a lucknow rally, everyone was surprised when she said that Dalits were not Hindus. She even mentioned that BR Ambedkar had converted to Buddhism. Consequently, Brahmin voters started drifting away from the BSP. To defeat the SP and the Congress, Brahmin voters could have voted in favour of the BSP but not so after Mayawati’s statement.
CONGRESS’S NEW STRATEGY
Reliable sources say that the Congress party has deliberately created a confusion. Its leaders have issued three types of statements as per their strategy. And that is the reason why BJP leaders are also compelled to make statements against the regional satraps.It is said that the Congress strategised to keep the BJP alone. Right from AK Antony to P Chidambaram and Randeep Surjewala, all of them have said that the UPA III Government will be formed taking all the secular parties together. These leaders have opposed the idea of a Third Front Government. But Kapil Sibal, Salman Khursheed, Prithviraj Chauhan and even Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel have emphasised that the Third Front Government will indeed be formed. Jairam Ramesh too believes that the Congress should become part of the Third Front Government. Sensing this strategy, the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, has started to appeal to ensure land slide victory for the BJP.
AAP’S MISSION DERAIlED
Though the AAP is fighting on more than 400 seats the whole focus is on two seats only — Kumar Vishwas in Amethi and Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi.Sources say that there is much tension over the leadership issue within the party. Some of the supporters of Vishwas are saying that Kejriwal is not supporting him. It is also being said that some of the AAP workers recently met Priyanka Gandhi. Apparently, Kejriwal was the brainchild behind that meeting.
Vishwas too is giving a tough fight to Rahul Gandhi. Reports claim that he will get a big chunk of votes in Amethi and Kejriwal is not in a very comfortable position in Varanasi. At the same time, he doesn’t want Vishwas to get more votes than him too. Further, news is pouring in that various other tussles are occurring in the party — Vishwas vs Manish Sisodia and Manish Sisodia vs Sanjay Singh. Meanwhile, the Muslim face of the AAP, Maqsood ul Hasan Qazmi, has left the party along with founder member Ashwini Upadhyay.
TARGET OF CONGRESS
Reportedly, the Congress has accepted that it can’t save the present 204 seats. Its own assessment says that the BJP will be the largest party but can’t cross its 182 mark of 1999. In this scenario, it is hopeful that there can be an experiment of either the UPA III or Third Front. People are saying that the Congress is targeting the number it got in 2004 — 145. At that time the BJP had gone down to 138 from 182. If this time the Congress falls badly from 204 and the BJP increases to even 180 from 114 then the probability to form the Government would go up.
That is why Congress leaders are working to achieve a target of 140-145 seats. It is being said that the Congress is hopeful of better performance in Punjab, Orissa, Assam, Telangana, Maharashtra, Kerala and the Northeastern States. Apart from this, it is expecting better performance from its alliance partners as well of the left, Jayalalithaa, Jagan Mohan and Chandrashekhar Rao.
BETTER HAlVES IN THE BATTlE
Wives of many Chief Ministers are also trying their luck this time. Renuka Rawat, the wife of Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Pratibha Singh, wife of Himachal Pardesh’s Chief Minister Veerbhadra Singh, and Dimple Yadav, wife of Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, are all contesting. All the three ladies are campaigning saying that if they win people will get MPs along with CMs. On the other hand their husbands have made it a prestige issue and are trying hard to ensure the victory of their wives.
PAWAR AT WORK
The NCP chief Sharad Pawar has started talking with regional satraps and working on the option of the Third Front Government with the help of the Congress.It is said that Pawar is trying to woo regional satraps to take them closer to the Congress. Right now he is trying to contact leaders of non-Congress and non-BJP parties. Mulayam Singh, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Jayalalithaa, Karunanidhi, Jagan Mohan and K Chandrashekhar Rao — Pawar has good personal relations with all. He is in a position to help all of them so the Congress is keeping all hopes with Pawar.
PAWAN KAlYAN’S RISE
Pawan Kalyan, the superstar of Telugu films and brother of Congress leader Chiranjeevi, has opened many fronts at a time. He had gone to Gujarat to meet Modi and has recently participated in Modi’s rally held in Andhra Pradesh. In this rally, Modi talked more about Kalyan more than the TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu, with whom Kalyan doesn’t share too good a relationship. likewise, Pawan Kalyan doesn’t have very good relations with his brother Chiranjeevi. Both the brothers have taken out their swords against each other. But in a sense, Modi presented Kalyan as a future leader. After that, it is clear that Kalyan is leading many fronts in Telangana and Seemandhra.
On the other hand, Chandrashekhar Rao is so upset after Kalyan’s rally in Telangana that he is making absurd statements against Modi. Having warned Rao, Kalyan is said to be working on the strategy of the BJP which underlines that the party must stand on its own in Seemandhra and Telangana.