The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs has put an end to all the speculation on when the Monsoon Session will be held — it will be convened in the first week of August. The reason for this is that the Government has finally got the required majority to get the Food Security Bill passed.
The indication that the required number has been arranged for was given by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav when he went to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Though Mulayam has suggested some amendments in the Bill, it is also true that he has given his consent to support the Bill.
Even Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that he will extend his full support to the Bill. In fact, he has said that his State is all set to implement it the minute it is passed. The only roadblock will come from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The DMK has said it will give conditional support.
Since the Congress managers have been advertising the advantages of this Bill across the country, party leaders opine that the BJP will not be able to openly oppose the Bill.
NO DECISION
Recently, Gujarat Chief Minister and chairman of BJP election campaign committee Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Maharashtra. He also went to Odisha and did darshan of Prabhu Jagannath during the Rath Yatra period. He is also planning a visit to Andhra Pradesh.
Interestingly, his schedule has not been finalised for the five States where the Assembly Elections are to be held. There are reports that he will be participating in a rally in Delhi, but no official announcement has been made so far. He has not yet started campaigning in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Sources say that the reason for this is senior BJP leader lK Advani wanting a separate campaign committee for these States. Therefore, Modi has not made any schedule for campaigning in these States.
29th StateIJ
There are reports that the Congress Core Committee has taken a decision to carve out a separate Telangana from Andhra Pradesh. Party insiders say that an announcement in this connection is just a formality.
This announcement will be made by the end of this month. Two districts of Rayalaseema will be given to Telangana. The Congress is confidence that after the creation of the new State, the TRS will merge with the party and the Congress will win with a thumping victory in the newly created State with lok Sabha 21 seats.
Mean-while, the Congress is content with getting whatever seats it gets from Andhra Pradesh. Or the party will form an alliance with Jaganmohan Reddy’s party after the elections.
Thakurs upset
In the last elections, the Congress had tried to cash-in on Thakur votes in Digvijay Singh’s name. This time, the party may do the same in Amar Singh’s name. But after the reshuffle in party, UP’s Thakur leaders are very angry. This is because there are many Ministers at the Centre from the State but a single one is from the Thakur community. This point has been raised by the community time and again that among 12 general secretaries there is only one Thakur leader — Digvijay Singh while there are five Brahmin general secretaries. They also say that there is not even a single Rajput secretary.
The community says that this time round, the Congress will not get even a single Thakur vote from UP. Therefore, there is speculation that the BJP will take advantage from this situation. This is because the national president of BJP is Thakur and that too from UP.
The Muslim leaders are also unhappy because two Muslims from Bihar have got place in the party organisation but not a single one is from UP.
In a tight spot
The apex court has made a decision — a conviction for two years or more will automatically terminate the membership of the MP and the MlA. The court has also given the ruling that no leader can fight any election from behind the bars. This has sent all the political parties into tizzy. Almost all the satraps have opposed these decisions. All the parties have come together and want that either the Centre should appeal against these two decisions or there should be an amendment made in the Constitution.
The law Commission is going to call an all-party meeting soon to discuss the repercussions of these two decisions. Though the Congress and the BJP are also caught in this situation, they are not openly against the court’s decision.
More than 50 JD(U) MlAs have cases on some charge or the other against them. Some are in jail as well. Partymen in lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s lJP are more or less in a similar situation.
Recently, the SP had included relatives of Babu Singh Kushwaha who is in jail. Several SP MlAs are also in jail.
More than a dozen leaders, who were Ministers in BSP regime, are facing corruption charges and may find themselves behind bars soon. Many senior leaders of the DMK also have cases pending against them.
But the most worried are those leaders who are already in the jail. They fear that their political career has come to an end.
The infighting
When Digvijay Singh was incharge of Assam, there was infighting between Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Health Minister Hemant Biswa Sama. Now, that Digvijay Singh is incharge of Karnataka, there is a fight between Chief Minister Siddramaiah and president of Karnataka Congress G Parmeshwara. Apparently, the controversy arose right after Digvijay’s first visit to the State when he gave green signal to set up a coordination committee to supervise and analyse the party work at State level.
It is said that this was a big victory of Parmeshwara because the formation of the committee will ensure that it has control on what the Chief Minister does. It must be noted that Parmeshwara was also a contender for the Chief Minister’s post but he lost the election.
Recently, he had written a letter to Siddramaiah saying that pre-election promises should be included in the first budget. But the Chief Minister didn’t pay heed to the letter.
To begin with, it was only Parmeshwara who had taken the initiative. He was later, joined by Shiv Kumar who is unhappy because he was denied a Ministerial berth. So, now both are leading a campaign against Chief Minister.
No takers for this front
When Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had first initiated talks about the formation of the Federal Front, there was much hype in the political circles. She had spoken to many leaders and at one time it was being speculated that she will be able to create a strong Front against the Congress and the BJP.
In fact, there were rumours that the formation of the Third Front, initiated by Mulayam, may be put on hold. Unfortunately, her efforts have come to not. No satrap leader is interested in the formation of the Federal Front.
Mamata had spoken with Nitish and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. But they have not given their nod to her proposal. In fact, just the opposite is happening Nitish is getting closer to the Congress and Patnaik appears to be moving towards the BJP.
Mamata had had also talked to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and Jaganmohan’s mother Vijayalakshmi. However, both have been silent on the matter.
Meanwhile, Vijayalakshmi has made it clear that she will go for a post-poll alliance with the Congress. Though, Jayalalithaa has not said anything, it is said that she may side with the BJP after the 2014 lok Sabha elections.