Many senior leaders in the Congress are not happy with the way Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has been conducting party politics. He has given instructions that the party leaders need to visit their constituencies on a regular basis and hold public meetings. They then need to submit a written report which will be scrutinised at different levels. This move, which most leaders view as babugiri, has not gone down well among them.
It is said that Team Rahul has prepared a five-page form which all leaders will have to fill. This has been done to fix responsibility at every level — from the State incharge to State president to district president. He has done so on the advice of some partymen who have pitched for fixing responsibility. Also, there are many leaders who manipulate tickets for their candidates. If they are defeated, the onus of failure is put on the organisation. Rahul wants to change this, hence, the filling of forms.
Meanwhile, he also wants district and booth-level workers to use social media to keep in touch with the voters in their area. All of them have been asked to open Facebook accounts so that they are made aware of party activities and remain in touch with other leaders. However, this move has left a few veterans in a fix as they are not so well versed with technology. Some have, therefore, roped in young leaders to help them out of this predicament.
Taking a cue
While Rahul Gandhi is busy motivating his party leaders to keep in touch via the social media, the I&B Ministry has already started recruiting volunteers to help the Ministry advertise the Government’s achievements online. These digital volunteers will advertise Government schemes on Facebook and Twitter.
The Ministry has created its own channel on YouTube too. The channel has already touched two lakh hits. Till now, the Ministry has recruited 1,200 volunteers. But upbeat with the number of hits, the Ministry has relaxed its rules. This will help the department recruit more digital volunteers.
Till now, the UPA-II Government and the Congress was averse to the use of social media. In fact, Digvijay Singh had said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had manipulated the social media. And now, UPA-II and the Congress are doing the same thing.
Meeting spree
Rahul Gandhi was made party vice-president at the Chintan Shivir held in Jaipur in January. Since then, he has been holding a series of meetings. Already, three rounds of meeting with All India Congress Committee (AICC) office bearers, State officials and party MPs have been held. Though no direct outcome of these meetings has been seen or felt, the meetings continue.
Rahul also met Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Delhi’s president JP Aggrawal thrice. Unfortunately, the conflict between Dikshit and Aggrawal continues. In Madhya Pradesh, things are no different. Three meetings have been held in the State Congress unit but groupism in the party continues. He has had three rounds of meetings with the leaders of Uttrakhand, Punjab and Haryana but factionalism is still there.
Despite this, Rahul has not given up and continues to hold meetings.
No Kamal move
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath has failed to manipulate things to the Congress’ advantage in this Budget Session of Parliament. In the Winter Session of 2012, he had been able to keep Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav under control by taking them into confidence. But this time, Mulayam’s stance towards the Congress has not softened. But a Kamal Nath confidant said that the Minister did everything in his power to keep things in control but if the situation and circumstances are not conducive, there is nothing much he can do.
The Congressman was referring to the fate of law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. Bansal was involved in a controversy after his nephew was arrested for taking bribe to ensure a choice posting for a railway official, while Kumar is under fire for vetting a Central Bureau of Investigation report on the coal scam.
Both the cases came to light unexpectedly. And now, even partymen are distancing themselves from the issue. If this was not enough, even the Supreme Court has made its observations in both cases turning on the heat on UPA-II. The only two alliance partners who have come forward to defend Pawan Bansal are lalu Prasad Yadav and NCP’s DP Tripathi.
Meanwhile, the BJP is also at loggerheads with Nath. This is because when Sonia wanted one of her partymen to give an answer when leader of Opposition in lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj was delivering a speech, Nath who sits just behind Sonia interrupted Swaraj. This did not go down well with the BJP. It is another matter that the House was in uproar over the Bansal case and he didn’t get any sympathy from his partymen.
Benefit goes to...
Who will be at a disadvantage if the BJP-JD(U) alliance breaksIJ Both the parties are making an assessment. The BJP has sought help from a leading election analyst and political commentator agency, GVl Narasimha Rao lens. Around 2,500 voters from 10 lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar were interviewed. The survey revealed that the benefit would go to the BJP.
Also, if the alliance breaks, the BJP will announce Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate. And if JD(U) doesn’t form an alliance with any other party, the BJP will get 29 out of 40 seats in Bihar, while the JD(U) will only win two seats. last time, the BJP had fought on 15 seats and won 12.
However, if the BJP-JD(U) alliance continues, the NDA will get 33 seats out of 40. It means NDA will get four more seats. The survey also says that if JD(U) breaks away from the BJP and forms an alliance with Congress, then the BJP will get 19 seats and JD(U)-Congress alliance will get 16. Of these 16 seats, JD(U) will contribute 10 and the Congress 6. In all the scenario, lalu’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and Paswan’s lok Janshakti Party will not perform too well.
Same, same
Three top Congress leaders — Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — gave almost similar speeches in Opposition-ruled States. The speeches centred around on the amount of money the Centre had give to that particular State and the how the said State has misused the money.
During the Assembly election campaign in Karnataka as well, Sonia, Manmohan and Rahul had said something similar. While Karnataka Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar had preferred not to react to the speech, Narendra Modi had given a befitting answer at Belgaum.
Though many Chief Ministers of non-Congress ruled States came up with their own strategies on how to deal with what Sonia, Manmohan and Rahul had to say, Modi’s style was different. Instead of using words like donation and alms, Modi said that the Centre doesn’t give money to States as part of dowry. A similar reply had been given by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Even Mayawati had given a befitting reply. While campaigning for the Assembly elections (on November 25, 2011 at Siddharthngar, UP) held in UP last year, Rahul had said that the “there is an elephant sitting in lucknow and this elephant is eating your money”.
“The Congress is getting nightmares about BSP’s election symbol elephant driving them away,” Mayawati retorted.
Changing times in congress
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has been slowly but steadily been making a series of changes in the party. To begin with, the party has appointed eight spokespersons. The team has been given a clear signal on what changes are in the offing.
Sources say that Rahul is going to stop the practice of giving independent charge of States to party leaders. This means that even though a general secretary will be made incharge of a State, a secretary will assist him in managing the affairs of the State.
At present, Mohan Prakash and Shakeel Ahmed, who have been reappointed as party spokespersons, are in charge of three States each. However, Rahul wants to strictly follow the one-man-one-post rule. If it comes into effect, they will be relieved of their additional charge. Also, if the rule is followed to the T, many more leaders will need to be accommodated in the party organisation.
In the wake of the rule that is to follow, Gulchain Singh Charak, member, working committee of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dhani Ram Shandil and Congress leader Jagdish Tytler will also no longer be State incharges of Punjab, Meghalaya and Odisha, respectively.
Sources also say that the number of general secretaries and secretaries may be increased. There is talk that the number of Congress Working Committee members may be cut short to make its working more effective.