Hari shankar vyas
Congress leaders are claiming that their strategy has worked and they have been successful in stopping the Land Bill. Though, BJP leaders are not giving any credit to the Congress; they are saying that it’s because of Gajendra Singh’s martyrdom. The farmer from Rajasthan had hanged himself at Jantar Mantar. After that, the Government had decided that the Bill must not be passed by hook or crook.
But it is difficult to reach consensus on the Bill. A joint committee with 30 members has been formed, and the Congress is expected to put pressure on the Government to include some provisions from the old Bill of the UPA. Sources say the Government may include the provision of consent of farmers, but it can be reduced from 2/3rd to 50 per cent. But the Congress might not agree to this.
Congress leaders are of the view that the Government will not allow the Land Bill to become a big issue in the Monsoon Session as Bihar elections are scheduled soon after that. And if Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalithaa decide to prepone the elections, then West Bengal and Tamil Nadu will also go to polls around the same time. The Congress also forced the Government to send the GST Bill to the select committee. Party leaders are saying that they will force the government to remove the power of veto from this Bill.
New Equations in Bihar
The merger process of the Janata family in Bihar has been derailed. Though, Nitish Kumar is claiming that it has been done, Lalu Prasad Yadav has repeated the lines of SP General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav and that gives the indication that talks are going on for an alliance instead of a merger. On the other hand, many leaders of JDU feel that an alliance will not be successful. In 2009 and 2010, Lalu had fought elections after forging an alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan, and both fared poorly.
In this scenario, there is a fair chance of a new equation in Bihar. Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi has gauged the situation and has asked Lalu to fight with him. He is also in touch with the BJP, but in that scenario, he would get very few seats. If this happens, many leaders who are currently with Manjhi might return to the Nitish fold because they had parted ways from JDU only because of Lalu.
Nitish has still one option left – that of going with the Congress. In the seat distribution for the elections of the Legislative Council, Lalu had ignored the Congress and thus the party is not very happy with him. If there is no merger, then there is least chance for the alliance too, and then there will be a three-pronged fight in the State.
Reasons for merger delay
Some leaders of JDU and RJD are still trying for the merger of six parties of the Janata family, but there is a lot of resistance in the Samajwadi Party. Seeing that, it can be said that there is no possibility of a merger in the immediate future. There is a technical problem behind this and to solve that Sharad Yadav and KC Tyagi spoke to the Election Commission. However, CEC SY Qureshi made it clear that national status could not be given to the party without fighting elections, and if the party would get national status, the symbol of cycle could not be assigned to it.
Leaders of SP don’t want to leave the cycle symbol. In fact, they don’t have much expectations from the proposed merger. The SP has more concerns. First, who will be the leader in Rajya Sabha? At present, Ram Gopal Yadav is the leader of SP in Rajya Sabha, but after merger this post will be occupied by Sharad Yadav. Ram Gopal doesn’t want to lose this post. His close aide and SP’s other General Secretary, Kiranmoy Nanda, has made it clear that if the new party is formed, Ram Gopal will be its leader in Rajya Sabha.
Party fund is the other concern of Samajwadi leaders. SP’s treasure is full. As far as donation is concerned, the record of SP is good. On the other hand, JDU, RJD and other parties don’t have a very good record. Apart from this, there is tussle between RJD and JDU, and that is the reason why SP leaders are apprehensive of good results.
BJP to tie up with AIADMK?
It seems that a new political equation is also shaping up in Tamil Nadu. In the next Assembly Elections, the ruling AIADMK and BJP may go into an alliance. When Jayalalithaa was given a clean chit in the disproportionate assets case, PM Narendra Modi called her up and this is being considered as an important sign. Sushma Swaraj also spoke to the AIADMK chief and congratulated her. Sources say Jaya’s party may join the Central Government and an alliance can be forged between the two parties for Assembly Elections.
Jayalalithaa had fought the last election with parties like DMDK and VCK. Capt Vijay Kant’s party DMDK had got 28 seats, but after one year, he parted ways and became leader of the Opposition. Similarly, parties of Dalits VCK also parted ways with Jaya. Now leaders of VCK are in contact with the Left Front and TMC.
It means both alliance partners of Jaya have parted ways and there is least chance that they will come together again because DMK is all set to form an alliance with DMDK. PMK and MDMK have recently separated from the BJP and can’t go with Jayalalithaa. So, there is a chance that AIADMK and BJP will become partners. If DMK and DMDK go into an alliance, then the Congress will be left alone.
No strategy for polls
The Congress has not started working on the strategy for the States where elections are scheduled. Despite facing bad defeat in the Lok Sabha Elections and several Assembly Elections, the party is seemingly not preparing for the upcoming Assembly polls. The first four months of this year have passed in Rahul Gandhi’s holiday and relaunching. Even then, Rahul’s focus is on States like Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Telangana where elections aren’t scheduled in the immediate future. Congress leaders are worried that there is no strategy for Bihar, Bengal and Assam.
In Bihar, elections are scheduled at the end of this year, but the Congress still doesn’t know what is to be done. That is the reason why Lalu and Nitish are sure that the Congress will go with them. The position of the Congress in Bengal is becoming worse day by day. At many places, it has slipped to number four – after TMC, Left and BJP.
