With assembly polls in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand coming up, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge held a meeting with all the party general secretaries, state unit chiefs and AICC state in-charges in New Delhi to chalk out future plans for the elections. He held discussions regarding organisational matters and various issues of national importance for election preparedness. Kharge said that the party’s focus is on the pressing issues of unbridled unemployment and uncontrolled inflation, and it would design a national campaign around these problems and go to people. Kharge also said that the shocking revelations of a nexus between the SEBI and Adani needed an independent and complete investigation.
BSP, ASP TO EACH GO SOLO IN UTTAR PRADESH ASSEMBLY BY-POLLS
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and ASP chief Chandra Shekhar Azad declared that the parties would each contest the upcoming Assembly by-polls in Uttar Pradesh in 10 seats. Both the parties have decided to go solo in the by-polls and aimed to consolidate the nearly 21 per cent Dalit vote, 12 per cent of this being Jatav, which is Mayawati’s caste. By winning seats in the assembly by-polls, the BSP aspires to make a comeback in state politics. Buoyed by victory, ASP in turn plans to expand its base among the Dalit voters across UP. With Chandra Shekar Azad leading the ASP campaign, Mayawati’s firebrand nephew Akash Anand will lead the BSP campaign and the fight for Dalit votes. Both the Dalit-based parties – BSP and ASP – would become a vote attractor in UP. But the question is whether BSP or ASP would be able to cut votes of either NDA or INDIA bloc?
INFIGHTING HARYANA CONGRESS: ASSEMBLY POLL PREPARATIONS MARRED
With Haryana assembly election’s coming closer, the infighting between the two factions of Congress is quite evident. Haryana Congress is well known for having two warring factions; one led by former chief minister (CM) Bhupinder Singh Hooda and and the other by Lok Sabha Member (MP) Kumari Selja. However, Randeep Singh Surjewala and former union minister Birender Singh were considered a part of Selja’s faction. The Selja faction is known as “SRB” (Selja, Randeep, and Birender) in Haryana politics. On one hand, Kumari Selja supporters see her as the chief ministerial candidate. On the other hand, Hooda camp has already pitched Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the pre-poll chief ministerial candidate. Hooda and Uday Bhan, along with the state party affairs in-charge Deepak Babaria, are seen together, which has angered the other faction. Kumari Selja has accused Deepak Babaria of being inclined toward the Bhupinder Hooda camp and ignoring the other leaders. Meanwhile, Hooda on Tuesday asserted that he is neither tired, nor retired but said the Congress high command would take a call on who would be the chief minister after Congress manages to get a majority in the assembly elections. Hooda, 76, also dismissed talk of factionalism in the party’s Haryana unit, asserting that “matbhed hote hain…manbhed nahi hain (there could be difference of opinion… but no dissension).”
MAHA VIKAS AGHADI’S ‘CM FACE’ DILEMMA: UDDHAV WANTS ANOTHER GO
The political temperature is soaring high ahead of assembly elections in Maharashtra as Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), alliance is facing discord over who should be the alliance’s chief ministerial candidate. Obviously, the Thackeray camp has repeatedly pushed its demand to declare Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray as the MVA face for the chief minister’s post. During his recent Delhi tour, Thackeray expressed his desire to become Chief Minister of Maharashtra again, if alliance partners in MVA support the move. However, Congress leaders, including Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala and state president Nana Patole have firmly stated that the alliance’s first priority would be to defeat Mahayuti, the NDA-BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde) camp. NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar said that the formula to the path ahead is collective leadership. It is obvious that the issue of future CM face is the bone of contention and causing discontent within the MVA partners.
MAYAWATI BACK TO BAHUJAN POLITICS TO WIN BACK LOST DALIT VOTES
BSP was not able to win a single seat in the recently held Lok Sabha election, with its core Dalit votes shifting to other parties. Now BSP supremo Mayawati is trying out new strategies so asto go back to the basics and redraw the party’s bahujan plans. She has already demanded a caste census from the Central Government. However, the challenge before the party is not only to win back Brahmin, Muslim, and non-Yadav backward class votes, a strategy that propelled it to power in 2007, but to also win back the nearly 21 per cent Dalit vote, 12 per cent of this being Jatav, which is Mayawati’s caste. According to party functionaries, besides raising the issue of the Supreme Court’s quota judgment, the BSP has also decided to focus on caste equations in party appointments. A change is already being seen as more than half of the responsibilities in some district units in Uttar Pradesh have been reassigned to Dalit and most backward community leaders. The same is set to be implemented in other districts and state units too. (IPA Service)
Modi’s 11th I-Day Address Turned Out to Be a Party Leader’s Speech 