The Writing on the Wall

SO, “UP KE LADKEY” have again teamed up for the coming parliamentary contest. Adversity was the catalyst. After the polls, their mutual dejection may again be the reason for them to go their separate ways in a hail of bitter invectives. Yet, again. The first time they contested together in the 2017 Assembly election, both came to grief, with Samajwadi Party boss Akhilesh Yadav forswearing any alliance with Congress. But it is no surprise they are back together again. Politicians feast on their words daily, don’t they? But this time, too, the writing is on the wall. Even the simple arithmetic of adding up the votes the two had polled separately in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls does not hold much hope for Congress in the 17 seats it has been allocated by the senior partner in the alliance of convenience. In 12 of the 17 seats, its vote share was less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled. Remarkably, only in two of the 17 seats allocated to Congress was the SP-plus- Congress share greater than BJP’s. The reason was that hitherto the two seats had been the Gandhi family bastions, namely Amethi and Raebareli.

With the family matriarch Sonia Gandhi opting for the safe route to Parliament via Rajya Sabha, there is speculation that daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might try her luck in Raebareli. Meanwhile, a big question has arisen over the safe seat for Rahul Gandhi following CPI, a member of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala, staking claim to the Wayanad seat. The party has already declared its candidate, Annie Raja, wife of CPI General Secretary D Raja. Given that the battle in Kerala is traditionally between the ruling LDF and the Congress-led United Front, leaving the Wayanad seat for Rahul Gandhi weakens the case of both fronts in presenting a clear-cut alternative. While BJP gains a propaganda advantage, fleshing out its case for being a stand-out third alternative with a sound programmatic and ideological narrative.

SANDESHKHALI COULD BE Mamata Banerjee’s Singur moment—though in the case of the latter, there were no complaints about rape and molestation of women, the annexation of land of poor farmers by Trinamool Congress goons, or the organised influx of Bangladeshi immigrants. While Singur was a belated attempt by the Marxist government to revive industrialisation, there is no redeeming feature in the case of Sandeshkhali. Trinamool allowed a local don to rule the roost, making the police and civil administration subservient to his writ.

Mamata now worries about Sandeshkhali impacting Trinamool’s prospects in the coming parliamentary polls. Ministerial delegations are dispatched daily to Sandeshkhali belatedly, only to be booed by the villagers. So complete is the polarisation that it may be hard for Mamata to stave off the BJP challenge in the coming election. Despite desperate efforts by Mamata Banerjee to paper over the scandalous collapse of civil and police administration, changing the narrative from Sandeshkhali is proving hard. Trust it to dominate the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, much to the chagrin of the Trinamool boss.

IT IS A DOUBLE whammy for taxpayers. Ministerial wrongdoing not only inflicts financial losses on the state exchequer, but these are further compounded by organising an expensive legal defence. Even in matters where ministers show a lack of judgment and find themselves facing defamation charges, it is the taxpayers who are made to pay for their defence.

Indeed, it will be interesting to enquire about the lawyers’ fees paid by the Delhi government in the 15 years Sheila Dikshit was chief minister, and during the period Kejriwal has been in the saddle. It should not come as a surprise if Kejriwal burdened the taxpayers in just one year far more than what Dikshit paid to lawyers in her 15-year tenure.

Akhilesh YadavAmethiCongressGeneral election 2024RaebareliRahul GandhiSamajwadi PartyUttar Pradesh