Hari shankar vyas
Narendra Modi’s Government is not in a very comfortable position in Rajya Sabha. The BJP has only 43 members in Rajya Sabha, but in the past six months ie after the Lok Sabha Elections, the party has taken some lead. Without doing anything, the party has got around half a dozen seats in Rajya Sabha. The BJP made an alliance with the TDP and took one vacant Rajya Sabha seat. That seat was supposed to go to the TDP, but the BJP negotiated that for Central Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The BJP also got two seats from Haryana. One of them belonged to the Congress and the other to INLD. When senior leader of Congress Chaudhary Birender Singh joined the BJP, he resigned from Rajya Sabha. Afterwards, when INLD leader Ranbir Singh Prajapati won Assembly Elections, he left his Rajya Sabha seat. Two separate notifications have been issued for these seats and the BJP has selected Birender Singh and Suresh Prabhu. Now, these two will go to the BJP quota.
In Maharashtra, the BJP is the largest party and had formed the Government with the help of Independents. Now, the Shiv Sena has also joined the Government. One Rajya Sabha seat had fallen vacant after the death of senior Congress leader Murli Deora. Normally, in the byelections, Rajya Sabha seats go to the ruling party. So, hopefully the BJP will get one seat in Maharashtra.
In Jharkhand, by the order of the court, election on one seat for Rajya Sabha is on hold. If the election had been over, that seat would have gone to the ruling JMM-Congress alliance. But now election on that seat will be held after the Assembly polls. In this case, if the BJP performs well, that seat will also go to its quota.
Big challenge for BJP
The BJP has to increase the number of its members in Rajya Sabha, but this is not an easy task. At present, the Congress has 69 members in Rajya Sabha and it is the largest party, while the BJP is the second largest party with 43 members. The next biennial election is scheduled for 2016. Before that, election will be held for four seats of Jammu and Kashmir. Two seats from the nominated category will also be vacated. The BJP can give the nominated seats as per its wish but the fate of four J and K seats will depend on the result of the Assembly Elections.
Not only this, the BJP is not going to gain much even in the biennial elections scheduled for 2016. At that time, four seats of Rajasthan will be vacated. But of these, the seats of Ram Jethmalani and VP Singh Badnore are still with the BJP. If all four seats go to the BJP, the party will be benefitted by two seats only. Likewise, three seats from Madhya Pradesh will be vacant at that time, but the seats of Chandan Mitra and Anil Madhav Dave are still with the BJP. So, the party will not gain much from that State also. In Karnataka, the BJP will get one seat, which is already with Venkaiah Naidu.
In 2016, six seats will be vacant from Maharashtra. Of these, two seats each belong to the BJP-Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP. Here, the BJP can benefit from two seats. In Tamil Nadu, the party won’t benefit much. In UP, it will get maximum one seat. In Gujarat, election will be held in 2017 and three seats will be vacant. Of these, two already belong to the BJP. If the party has a major victory in Bihar and West Bengal, it will be in a better position in Rajya Sabha. In a nutshell, if the BJP wins in all the States in the next three years, only then will it be in a position to leave the Congress behind in the House.
RSS abuzz with activity
All of a sudden, the activities of RSS have gone up. In the past six months, the Sangh has been in the news. Be it the golden jubilee celebrations of the VHP
or the conference of Vishwa Hindu Congress or the meeting of pratinidhi sabha of RSS, the Sangh family has been buzzing with activity. Recently, educationists from all over India had a meeting at RSS headquarters to discuss the education scenario in the country. The Opposition alleged that the Government is trying to saffronise the education system of the country.
Now, the RSS wants to increase the number of its shakhas. The BJP was out of power for the past 10 years and during this time, the number of shakhas went down and even the number of people going there decreased. But now the number of shakhas is on the rise again. At present, there are around 50,000 shakhas in different parts of the country and the target is to increase it to 70,000. It is said that RSS members are concentrating on North-eastern and Southern States. RSS has big plans for the North-east. In these States, RSS has become super active to stop the campaign of the church. Among Southern States, RSS has to expand itself in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Bill in Congress Court
The Government has decided not to bring the amendment Bill to the Land Acquisition Act this Winter Session. This could be taken up in the Budget Session. Sources say it can be deferred even further. Probably the Government doesn’t want to upset the Congress and other Opposition parties. But despite all this, the Government feels it might land in trouble if the Opposition unites in Rajya Sabha. The Government wants to get the Insurance Bill passed at any cost and is in no mood to take risk. Parliament managers feel that since the Bill had been prepared by the Congress, it may support it. Apart from this, the Government believes that barring the Left no Opposition party will be adamant on the Bill. On the other hand, if an attempt is being made to dilute the Land Acquisition Bill, the entire Opposition will unite and the Insurance Bill will also face a hurdle. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Government is ready to bring a set of reforms in the next Budget. Even then, the Government will need the help of the Congress.
Cong’s comeback strategy
Leaders of the Congress are doing everything they can to stop the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The recent stand taken by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi against the demolition drive in Vasant Kunj slums is a case in point. After Rahul’s protest, the Congress had set up a separate cell to help slum dwellers in Delhi. The Congress also announced that if slums are being demolished anywhere, the party will rush to the spot to help the people. Rahul went to the extent of saying that if a slum is demolished, authorities will have to run a bulldozer on him first.
Slum dwellers, minorities and migrants have been conventional voters of the Congress. But in the last elections, major chunk of these voters went with AAP and that is why the Congress won only eight seats in Assembly Elections and was at the third position on all seven seats in Lok Sabha Elections. To rectify this, the Congress is gearing up to give a lot of tickets to migrants. Not only this, the party will put up almost twice the number of Muslim candidates than the last time. The party has already started its campaign in slums.