The assembly election of Bihar for 243 assembly seats is due in October- November this year. The opposition alliance is fighting over its chief ministerial candidate. RJD has projected 30-year old Tejashwi Yadav as the chief minister candidate of the grand alliance after its national council meeting passed a resolution in Patna on 10 December 2019, but now most of the parties are not agreeing to his candidature. The Congress also has reservations on this issue and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has had a virtual meeting with Bihar Congress leaders, including veteran Nikhil Kumar, legislative party leader Sadanand Singh and state party president, in which both Nikhil Kumar and Sadanand Singh expressed opposition to the move to project Tejashwi Yadav as the chief-ministerial face. According to sources, both Nikhil and Sadanand argued that the move will alienate the upper castes due to Tejashwi’s strong bias against them. Bihar party in-charge Shakti Singh Gohil suggested that a statewise survey be conducted to identify the face of alliance. Meanwhile, Hindustani Awam Morcha leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha and Vikas Sheel Insaan Party president Mukesh Sahani also opposed the name of Tejashwi. In the meeting, Congress also rejected the suggestion to go it alone in the assembly election. Senior Congress leader Kishore Kumar Jha said the party should deal with RJD on equal terms. Akhilesh Prasad Singh suggested that Congress should talk with Lok Jan Shakti party as Chirag Paswan is unhappy in the ruling National Democratic alliance. The Congress is also in touch with the new front of former minister Yashwant Sinha and left parties. Meanwhile, national spokesperson of RJD and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha has said that Congress has all the freedom to talk about the chief minister face but there is a special relationship between Laluji and Soniaji and that has withstood the test of time.
CONGRESS KEEPS DISTANCE FROM AHMED PATEL INTERROGATION
Rajya Sabha MP Ahmed Patel Is not getting the support of the Congress leadership in his struggle with investigative agencies in a case related to the Sandesara group. It is said that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were silent even as officials of the Enforcement Directorate grilled Ahmed Patel thrice. Ahmed Patel remains an integral part of the Congress high command structure and the entire party stands with him. He is the Congress treasurer, who enjoys the full support of Sonia Gandhi. The party is avoiding raising a storm over this issue because that would have amounted to falling into the BJP trap. The primary purpose of sending the ED to Patel’s residence was to divert attention from the border crisis with China. In response to questions, spokespersons condemned the government’s vendetta politics. Priyanka also quietly indicated the party’s mind by tweeting “Sending the ED to harass the senior party leader in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic shows the “perversion” of this government’s priorities. Thousands are dying, our health workers are desperate for supportive measures, the economy is facing an unprecedented crisis, the Chinese are entering our territory, our soldiers are being killed, and this is what the Government is busy spending time on. They say crisis unveils the true nature of people, it appears the saying applies to governments as well.” Ahmed Patel also avoiding making it a political issue and put out this tweet “Thank you, officials of ED for coming to my house thrice.I answered each of their 128 questions but they failed to answer my one fundamental question – Who in the Gujarat state government was responsible for bestowing multiple benefits, privileges and honours on the Sandesara group?”
FREE RATION AS BAIT FOR VOTES
Both TMC and BJP never lose the opportunity to fight with each other. This time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana till November-end due to Covid-19. The scheme will provide 80 crore people with free grains. The government, during these five months, will give each family member 5 kilogram wheat or 5 kilogram rice free of cost; apart from this each family will get free one kg of chana (chickpeas) too every month. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has reacted that the extension till November-end is because of the Bihar assembly election, to be held in October-November this year. She also extended the free ration scheme of the state government till June 2021as the West Bengal assembly election is going to be held in May 2021. After Mamata Banerjee’s announcement the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam are said to be considering extension of this programme, under which foodgrains are being provided to the poor and the needy as the assembly elections in these three states will also be held in May next year.
CHIRAG PASWAN MOUNTS PRESSURE FOR MORE SEATS
Seeing the assembly election of Bihar coming closer, LJP Chief Chirag Paswan has started building pressure for taking more seats in the NDA alliance. But this time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is annoyed with Chirag and does not want to give more seats to LJP. Chirag Paswan has said that the party’s alliance in 2014 was with the BJP and not with the JD(U) and JD(U) again became the part of NDA in 2017 when Nitish walked out of the alliance with RJD-Congress and joined hands with BJP. Chirag claims its alliance is at the national level and state politics is different. Meanwhile, BJP national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav had met Chiragand assured him that his party, the smallest coalition partner in the state, will get a fair deal in the Vidhan Sabha polls.
SCINDIA IS RUN-AWAY VICTOR IN MP CABINET EXPANSION
Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has expanded his cabinet by inducting more than a dozen Former Congress MLAs. In this expansion, the lion’s share of ministerial berths having gone to Gwalior-Chambal and Malwa belts. On the other hand, Mahakaushal and Vindhya regions, of which Jabalpur and Rewa are the headquarters, have got the short shrift. It seems that Jyotiraditya Scindia has got more share than Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Now, there seems to be a three-way tussle over prized portfolios — Chouhan’s old guard, Scindia’s team and long-time BJP leaders, who were picked by the central leadership over some of the veterans. As with the list of ministers, sources say, the BJP central leadership will take the call on portfolio allocation too. Shivraj Singh Chouhan is likely to visit the national capital in this regard. Sources in BJP said that after grabbing 41 percent berths in the state cabinet, Scindia loyalists are insisting on big departments — including those they had in the previous Congress government. (IPA)