According to Kejriwal, the BJP is putting in its 200 MPs for 70 seats. Around 3000 swayamsevaks and RSS officials have been called. BJP CMs have been told to campaign. Baba Ramdev will also be there
leaders of Bihar have been rigorously camping in Jharkhand. Actually, leaders of Bihar are taking the Jharkhand elections as semi-final. Assembly Elections are scheduled in Bihar next year. It is expected that the result of Jharkhand will greatly impact the Bihar election too. If the BJP wins in Jharkhand, a favourable chance will be there in Bihar and it will be difficult for the alliance which is in power. But, if Narendra Modi’s Ashwamedha
Horse is stopped in Jharkhand, the opposition parties in Bihar will be on cloud nine.
That is the reason why the leaders of Congress, RJD and JDU are putting all their strength in Jharkhand. After undergoing heart surgery, lalu Prasad Yadav has not gone to Bihar even once but he has visited Jharkhand twice. He is concentrating on the seats where Yadavas are in a good number, like Kodarma and Godda. likewise, Nitish Kumar and Bihar’s CM Jitan Ram Manjhi are also campaigning there. Stalwarts of Congress have also been roped in for campaigning.
On the other hand, leaders of the Bihar BJP are also not taking any chance; Sushil Modi has done several rallies. Giriraj Singh and Shahnawaz Hussain are also busy in Jharkhand. The lJP is not fighting on even a single seat but the BJP has roped in Ram Vilas Paswan also. Upendra Kushwaha has also been sent for campaign in Jharkhand. Organisation secretary of Bihar BJP, Nagendra, is also camping in Ranchi. For media management and programme of leaders from Bihar Sanjay Mayukh and Devesh Kumar have been roped in.
THE PlANNING COMMISSION
Congress has opposed the move to abolish the Planning Commission. In the meeting called by the PM, chief ministers of the Congress-ruled States opposed this move. Congress has set up a shadow committee which has provided notes for speeches to all the chief ministers. Even in the routine press briefing, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma put the things as per that note.
In the meeting of chief ministers with the Prime Minister, the Government briefed that the decision to abolish the Planning Commission had been taken in the Cabinet meeting on August 13 itself. And on August 15, the PM had announced that he wanted to put an end to it. Congress now alleges that the Government is taking autocratic decisions.
But, the CMs of almost all the States agree that there must be a new institution in place of the Planning Commission. Parties of Janata Parivar which always support the Congress on the other issues are also supporting the Government on this.
HOW TO STOP KEJRIWAlIJ
BJP is gearing up to fight the Delhi elections in a historical way. MPs and leaders for campaigning have already been roped in. Since Parliament is in session, all the MPs are in Delhi and they are conducting rallies in different areas of Delhi. Udit Raj, BJP MP, has already addressed a Dalit rally at Ramlila Maidan. Even sadhus and saints have been roped in for it.
Arvind Kejriwal briefed his supporters in Dubai and America that much is being done in Delhi to stop him. According to him, the BJP is putting in its 200 MPs for 70 seats. All the central ministers have been told to campaign. Around 3000 swayamsevaks and officials of RSS from all over India have been called to Delhi. Chief Ministers of BJP ruled States have also been instructed to campaign. Baba Ramdev will also be there.
Reliable sources in BJP say that the preparation for Delhi is much bigger than what the BJP did in all those four States where Assembly elections were held after the lok Sabha election. In fact, Modi and Shah feel if Kejriwal is not stopped, it will be problematic in the coming days. That is the reason why Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti has been asked to campaign in Delhi despite controversies.
BJP IS RESTlESS
AAP is playing a curious game in Delhi. It has announced the name of the BJP CM candidate. AAP claims that Jagdish Mukhi is the CM candidate from BJP and has also printed the posters to ask who will be a better CM — Jagdish Mukhi or Arvind Kejriwal. last time too, the AAP had put three faces on the posters they had printed — Kejriwal, Sheila Dixit and Vijay Goel. Afterwards, the BJP had named Harsh Vardhan its CM candidate.
What will BJP do this timeIJ Reliable sources of the BJP say that this time probably the party will fight the election in Delhi in the name of Modi itself like it did in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and J&K. A close source of Kejriwal discloses that even if the BJP fights in the name of Modi, the AAP will not change its poster. AAP is also apprehensive to turn it into Kejriwal Vs Modi.
OPPOSING MODI’S PROJECTS
The Congress has started opposing some of Modi’s projects. Right from Sonia Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi, they are opposing schemes and projects of social developments of Modi. Swachhta Mission, Jan-Dhan Yojana and Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) are on their target list. Although, it is also true that top leaders of the Congress had also selected villages under SAGY, later they opposed the scheme.
Rahul Gandhi has raised questions over it. He said that there are 700 villages under his constituency and if he adopts one village then what will happen to the remaining 699IJ He is also emphasising the fact that there is no extra fund allocation for the scheme. Rahul is mocking this scheme in almost all his rallies. He is saying that Modi is himself busy in his foreign trips and in place of employing the people he has put brooms in their hands.
likewise, the Congress is highlighting the fact that there is no money in more than 70 per cent of the bank accounts which have been opened under the Jan-Dhan scheme. In fact, the Congress took a late decision that it should compare the schemes of the Modi government with that of UPA Government. Now, all the schemes of the former are being compared with right to food, RTI, RTE and other ones.
NO TO RAHUl’S EXPERIMENTS
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is not going to do any new experiment in the organisation. All his democratic experiments have been put aside. Under the UPA Government’s rule, Rahul used to fight for his experiments and the senior leaders had to surrender. But, now he is paying attention to the senior leaders too. That is the reason why he has dropped the idea of holding elections to select the officials of AICC.
Sources close to Rahul say that now he feels that senior leaders of the party better know how to run the organisation and how to counter the BJP. At the same time, there is a faction of leaders who are against Rahul and saying that after defeat in the lok Sabha elections and two Assembly Elections, his morale is very low and he is listening to senior leaders under compulsion.
The four leaders — Ramesh Chennithala, Anand Sharma, Ashok Gehlot and Oscar Fernandes — who have recently joined AICC from Youth Congress have taken on the case of Rahul. It is being said that these leaders have made Rahul agree to change the process of selection of officials of Youth Congress. This clearly proves that no experiment of Rahul will be implemented in AICC.
BJP IN TAMIl NADU
BJP is gearing to fight it alone in Tamil Nadu. BJP sources say that the Dravidian parties are polarising in the State and they want to regain their lost background after playing fierce Dravidian politics. For this, they will raise the issues of Tamils and the old controversy of language. Vaiko’s party MDMK has left the NDA on the same issues. On one hand there is Vaiko who celebrated the birthday of lTTE’s Prabhakaran and on the other hand there is Subhramainan Swamy who demands Bharat Ratna for Mahinda Rajapaksa who was instrumental in Prabhakaran’s killing. There is no point of agreement between the two.
PMK, one more alliance of BJP, has also raised the issue of language. PMK has opposed the working in Hindi, to make Sanskrit as third language and has also opposed Sushma Swaraj’s statement on the Bhagavad Gita. It seems that within one year the Dravidian Parties will form a grand alliance against AIADMK in which parties like DMK, DMDK, PMK, MDMK and Tamil Maanila Congress may be included. Jayalalithaa will be the main opponent of this alliance.
In this scenario, the Congress and BJP may fight alone. But Congress leaders are still hopeful to have an alliance with the Congress while the BJP has started its preparation to go it alone in the State.
Despite that, Congress and the BJP both are keeping their eyes on DMDK leader Vijaykant. If GK Vasan’s party goes with DMK, Vijaykant may go with any national party.