After the decisive Jharkhand elections, now on 8 February, Delhi will witness a triangular fight among Congress, BJP and AAP, when the national capital votes to choose a new legislative assembly. The Congress, which ruled the city for 15 years till 2013, but drew a blank in the 2015 polls, is also looking to come to power. Similarly, the BJP is struggling to make a comeback to the helm of Delhi assembly after 22 years. All the three main parties having declared their list of candidates, with fresh faces along with the old political heavyweights. According to political observers, there is a high possibility that the Congress will cause deep dents in AAP’s voter base in the constituencies with significant Muslim population, in the light of protests against the recently amended citizenship law. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has refused to throw his weight behind the ongoing protests, though he has condemned the violence against the dissenters and students of JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia. CM Kejriwal has also spoken against the newly passed citizenship law that has been deemed divisive by thousands, and has said that there would be a definite impact of the new law, even though the quantum of the impact is not yet clear. The Delhi Congress and BJP have declared their list of candidates, but neither party has projected a CM face to directly challenge the incumbent Arvind Kejriwal. Moreover, it is not clear who will be fielded to contest against the chief minister and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi constituency. Meanwhile, the grandson of Lal Bhadur Shastri and AAP MLA, Adarsh Shastri, has resigned from AAP and joined the Congress, with the party giving him a ticket from the Dwarka Assembly constituency. Definitely the contest between the three parties has started a new political era, with the Centre’s heavyhandedness on several issues, including the latest citizenship amendment act, witnessing continued democratic agitations.
PRIYANKA GANDHI TO MOVE IN TO LUCKNOW ADDRESS SOON
Priyanka Gandhi is likely to be shifting to Lucknow for better coordination of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. At present she goes to the UP state capital once a month, but Gandhi is setting up her own residence in Lucknow, with the intention to focus properly on the northern state. Gandhi is looking forward to spend weekdays in Lucknow, while weekends in Delhi would be taken up by attending to her ailing mother Sonia Gandhi. The house of Sheila Kaul, Priyanka’s great grand aunt, is being renovated and a suitable date will be fixed for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to shift to her austere Lucknow residence.
BANSIDHAR BHAGAT IS THE NEW UTTARAKHAND STATE PRESIDENT OF BJP
After days of internal conflict, the BJP in Uttarakhand has made Bansidhar Bhagat as the state unit president, replacing Ajay Bhatt. Like Ajay Bhatt, Bhagat is also a Brahmin who hails from Kumaon, while Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat is a Rajput from Garhwal. In Uttarakhand’s politics, it is considered prudent to balance both caste and region. Although Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat wants to make Naveen Chandra Dumka an MLA from Lalkuwa in Nainital, as the president of BJP in the state, but Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the Cabinet Minister and MP from Haridwar, has pressured the high command for making Bansidhar Bhagat the new BJP State president. Bhagat (68) who is popular as the epic character ‘Dasharath’ that he plays in Ramlilas in his hometown Haldwani in Nainital, is a six-time legislator. He has been minister in undivided Uttar Pradesh before being offered cabinet roles in the newly carved out Uttarakhand in 2000. He was a minister of state (food and civil supplies) in the Kalyan Singh led BJP government in 1996. The Trivendra Singh Rawat group also wants that Ajay Bhatt should continue as the president of the state unit, but the RSS has now intervened and installed Bansidhar Bhagat as the state president. Now it is up to Bansidhar Bhagat how he handles the chief minister.
ANIL VIJ WORRIED CM KHATTAR MIGHT BE TAPPING HIS PHONE
Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij is not satisfied with his government and isworried about the tapping of his phone because of his differences with the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Khattar is an old-time RSS pracharak and during 2000-2014 period, Khattar was the organizational general secretary of the BJP in Haryana. After the results of the 2014 assembly elections, he was made the chief minister of Haryana, which was against the wishes of Anil Vij, who was the senior most MLA of BJP in Haryana. It was with the BJP high command’s assurance that he accepted Manohar Lal Khattar as the chief minister. In the first stint, Khattar had the Home portfolio with himself. In 2019 assembly elections, Manohar Lal Khattar fought the election as the chief minister candidate and won. Although only two ministers won from the previous Khattar government in the 2019 assembly polls, Khattar, under pressure from the top, gave the Home Ministry to Anil Vij. However, Khattar removed the CID department from the Home Ministry and merged the CID department in the general administrative department, thus keeping it under his wing. Anil Vij is now indirectly blaming the chief minister for tapping his phone and trying to convince the BJP high command on this sensitive matter. (IPA)
Davos Summit 2020: Rising Global Inequalities Cast Shadow 