The rebellion by former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has not only brought down the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh, but is also set to cost the Congress party a berth in the Rajya Sabha that it was poised to win. Polling for three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh was supposed to be held on March 26, but has been postponed in view of the coronavirus pandemic induced lockdown. Before the Scindia-led political upheaval that resulted in the fall of the Kamal Nath government, 58 first preference votes were required for each seat. Earlier, Congress had 114 members and was backing on the support of 7 members from SP, BSP and independent MLAs. Then the BJP had 107 members. Therefore, in the previous scenario, Congress could have won 2 Rajya Sabha seats and BJP could have won only one. However, after accepting the resignation of 22 Congress MLAs by Speaker NP Prajapati, the effective strength of the Assembly was reduced to 206, and according to revised calculations, it will now need 52 first preference votes for each seat. While the resignation of BJP MLA Sharad Kol has been disputed, the BJP has more than 104 members needed to win two Rajya Sabha seats. The BJP candidates are one, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and two, RSS activist and former assistant professor DR Sumer Singh Solanki. The Congress candidates are Digvijay Singh and Phool Singh Baraiya. Now it seems that Scindia is poised to win and the new arithmetic has come as a boon for RSS activist Dr Sumer Singh Solanki, whose name did not ring a bell when his candidature was announced by the BJP on March 12.
ELECTION TO 18 REMAINING RS SEATS POSTPONED OVER CORONA LOCKDOWN
Election Commission of India (ECI) has deferred the Rajya Sabha elections that were scheduled for March 26. Looking at the coronavirus lockdown in Delhi and most other states, Election Commission has decided to postpone the Rajya Sabha elections. Election to fill up 55 seats in the Upper House of Parliament was to be held on March 26, but 37 candidates have already been elected without a contest. The decision on holding the Rajya Sabha election for the remaining 18 seats will be taken based on the prevailing situation sources said. As cases of the viral infection surged, authorities have put almost the entire country under lockdown, banning gathering of people and suspending road, rail and air traffic till March 31. The Election Commission will review the situation after March 31.
AFTER RELEASE FROM DETENTION OMAR ABDULLAH FOCUSSES ON COVID-19 BATTLE
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, after being released on March 25 from nearly eight months in detention, said that the first and foremost task was to fight Covid-19 and any discussion on political developments in J&K would come later. Abdullah, sporting a long, unkempt grey beard, drove himself to his parents’ home after walking out of the makeshift detention centre at Hari Nivas, a state guesthouse. His mother Molly and sister Safia were with him. Abdullah tweeted: “232 days after my detention today I finally left Hari Niwas. It’s a very different world today to the one that existed on 5th August 2019.” His first step after release was visiting his parents’ home – his father Farooq Abdullah was released on March 13 where he had lunch with the family. “Had lunch with my mum and dad for the first time in almost 8 months. I can’t remember a better meal even though I’ve been in a bit of a daze and don’t remember what I ate,” he tweeted. Abdullah, who was released after the administration revoked the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) against him and Abdullah requested the Centre to release others detained, including PDP leader and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
CAPTAIN AMARINDER SAYS RAHUL MUST BE BACK AS CONGRESS PRESIDENT
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh made it clear that he was not interested in leaving the state for national politics and insisted that Rahul Gandhi must lead the Congress and revive its glory. He said about Gandhi: “He should not give up after one defeat,” adding that it was not fair to push the ageing Sonia Gandhi to keep on working. The Congress has been under the leadership of the Gandhi family for most of the decades since independence, and had pushed Sonia Gandhi to take up the leadership in the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s resignation from the post after the 2019 Lok Sabha defeat of the Congress. Despite not being in the best of health,Sonia had reluctantly agreed to pick up the cudgels of the battered party once again. However, the leadership issue has remained a thorn in the Congress corridors, with no permanent solution outside the Gandhi family in sight. The leadership crisis has forced the grand old party to see the Kamal Nath government fall through the stools, with the Scindia-led faction leaving the Congress en masse. Unless the Congress gets its act together, more mismanagement of crises in the future will be staring it in the face.
NO CHANGE OF GUARD IN UTTARAKHAND; TRIVENDRA RAWAT TO CONTINUE AS CM
Despite the completion of three years in government of Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Uttarakhand, the planned celebration has been stopped due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. The state government is now busy fighting Covid-19. The State Vidhan Sabha, Secretariat and all the government offices have been closed till further order and the session of the Assembly has also been postponed. While CM Trivendra Singh Rawat is upset over the lack of celebrations to mark the three-year milestone of his government, he is content that there would be no change of CM in the state. Earlier, there was a strong rumour that Satpal Maharaj was going to replace Trivendra Singh Rawat as the state CM. However, the Covid-19 scare has put those fears in lockdown as well.
DOCTOR AT DEPT OF BIOTECH SAYS INDIA NEEDS TO TEST MORE FOR COVID-19
Although the Indian Council of Medical Research claims that it is adequately testing as many patients for Coronavirus, but Dr Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director of Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, an autonomous body under the Science and Technology Ministry, Department of Biotechnology, has urged that the testing done so far is not enough. Kang is worried that the strategy followed so far many have already allowed for potential community transmission cases to go undetected. According to her, it was reiterated that there are no positive patients coming up from random surveillance but 820 or so tests cannot represent an entire country, as ICMR had said that none of the 826 such sample drawn in March had tested positive for COVID-19. Therefore, the government has now decided to test all hospitalised patients with severe acute respiratory infections including pneumonia. The WHO has supported the view of Dr Kang and said the best way to curb the spread of the novel virus is to test, test, test. (IPA)