As the assembly election in Bihar is coming closer, political parties are busy with their planning and strategy for the election. The opposition parties seem to be ununited as Upendra Kushwaha, Jitan Ram Majhi and Mukesh Sahani have shown their displeasure against Tejashwi Yadav and have met with the Congress leaders to pressurise the RJD leadership to declare the Mahagathbandhan leader and chief minister face. Jitan Ram Manjhi has also met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and discussed the coming assembly election. Meanwhile, Congress has demanded 100 assembly seats in the election and many senior leaders are against Tejashwi Yadav becoming the leader of Mahagathbandhan. On the other hand, Nitish Babu does not want to give more seats to BJP, which is claiming half of the seats after giving some seats to LJP. In the last Lok Sabha election JD(U) and BJP fought on 17seats each and Nitish Babu is trying to form an alliance with the smaller parties for this. He has discussed the issue with Manjhi for making a coalition with small parties to pressurise the BJP high command. At present there is a leadership crisis in the Opposition camp. Meanwhile, Former minister of finance and external affairs Yashwant Sinha has announced an outfit to contest the Bihar assembly polls.
INFIGHTING IN BIHAR CONGRESS
The Congress leadership refuses to learn from past mistakes. Its commitment to set up a new leadership in Bihar had always been suspect. The Bihar unit was shocked when Tariq Anwar was nominated for the lone seat in the Bihar legislative Council for the Congress this year. Anwar was with the Nationalist Congress Party before rejoining the Congress recently. He had been a Rajya Sabha member for two terms. He had also been the party MP from the Katihar Lok Sabha constituency. Anwar’s paper was rejected as he is not a registered voter in Bihar. As a result Congress has changed its nominee at the last hour for the Bihar Legislative Council poll and his candidature was replaced by working president of the State unit of the party Sameer Kumar Singh. Under the ‘mahagathbandhan’ alliance in the State, the Congress has just one candidate for the poll, scheduled to be held on July 6 for nine seats.The party had received over 3,000 applications for the lone seat. Meanwhile, another veteran BK Hariprasad, also a member of the Rajya Sabha for over four terms and a general secretary of the party for long, accepted a nomination for a council seat in Karnataka.
MINISTERS CUT UP WITH MAMATA
Mamata Banerjee is busy in fighting with BJP while her ministers are working against her. After the devastation caused by super cyclone Amphan in West Bengal, infighting within the ruling Trinamool Congress was out in the open Senior minister Sadhan Pande blamed the party-run Kolkata Municipal Corporation for their lack of planning to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone and adviced Firad Hakim to consult with the former Mayor Sovan Chatterjee for the relief activities. Firad Hakim is very close to Mamata Banerjee and Sovan Chatterjee is in BJP. According to political observers, everyone is waiting for the next step of Sadhan Pande as he is very close to Subrata Mukhurjee and other senior ministers in the TMC. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress leader and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim hit back at minister Sadhan Pande by saying it was easy to lecture others by sitting inside AC rooms.
MORE EXITS FROM MADHYA PRADESH CONGRESS FEARED
After Jyotiraditya Scindia episode in Madhya Pradesh, Phool Singh Baraiya, who has lost the Rajya Sabha election, is desperate and may take the path of Scindia. After Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia won the Rajya Sabha election, Baraiya is unhappy because he was not given a first preference against Digvijaya Singh by the Congress, resulting in his loss. According to political observers, Phool Singh Baraiya may leave the party with his followers on the eve of by-election. Former chief minister Kamal Nath seems to be worried and is trying to stop Phool Singh Baraiya from leaving. .Meanwhile, BJP has stated that it is an anti-Dalit move of Congress party. Home minister Narottam Mishra said Congress has shown its feudal mindset again. (IPA)
LDF Government’s Success Story Is A Continuance 