Dwindling fortunes, from Delhi to Itanagar

The lingering political crisis in Arunachal Pradesh has proved to be an expensive affair for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. When it first decided to poach the dissident Congress legislators several months ago in an effort to form its own government in the north-eastern state, the Bharatiya Janata Party flew down the MLAs to Delhi and put them up in a five-star hotel.

However, the BJP strategists did not realise that the process of government formation will take govt formationlonger than initially expected. After the Gauhati high court put on hold the governor’s decision to advance the Assembly session, the BJP shifted both the Congress’ and its own legislators to a three-star hotel since the party was running up huge bills to keep them safe from the Congress. However, the BJP’s plan went awry again when the Congress approached the Supreme Court. Since the Supreme Court is seized of the matter and there is no certainty when it will announce its verdict, the BJP has moved the legislators once again to some small hotel in Gurgaon. Clearly, the BJP is paying a heavy price both literally and figuratively to form its own government in the Northeast as it attempts to expand its footprint to regions where it has minimal presence.

Three Congress Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab — M.S. Gill, Ambika Soni and Ashwani Kumar — are set to retire over the next few months, but hectic lobbying for a coveted berth in the Upper House has already begun. According to the party grapevine, Mr Kumar has been making strenuous efforts for another term. Known to be close to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he is trying to catch Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s attention as she takes the final decision about the choice of Rajya Sabha candidates.

As a result, Mr Kumar donned his lawyer’s robes and landed up at the Patiala House courts when Mrs Gandhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders put in a personal appearance in connection with the National Herald case. He was apparently told very politely but firmly that he was not on the panel of lawyers representing the party leaders. But Mr Kumar maintained that he had come as Dr Singh’s counsel. On another occasion, he landed up in a Delhi court when the corruption case against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh was to be heard. Again, Mr Kumar maintained that he was representing Mr Virbhadra Singh while the other lawyers insisted he had not been deputed by the Himachal Pradesh chief minister. It is now to be seen if Mr Kumar’s efforts will eventually pay off.

The Punjab Congress’ last-minute decision to not contest the byelection from Khadoor Sahib led to a lot of speculation about the real reason for withdrawing from the contest. What is even more intriguing is that Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amarinder Singh made this announcement a day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved the candidature of Ramanjit Singh Sikki for this seat. Capt. Singh maintained that since the issue on which Mr Sikki had resigned had not been addressed by the Akali government, no purpose would be served by participating in this contest. Mr Sikki had put in his papers in October 2015 to register his protest against the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib. But this could well be window dressing. If Congress insiders are to be believed, the state unit decided to stay away from this bypoll as it was not sure about a win. A defeat in this election would have been a big blow for Capt.

Singh who was only recently re-appointed president of Punjab Congress amid great expectations that he will lead the party to victory in the Assembly polls due in 2017.

The national capital is abuzz with stories about a possible Cabinet reshuffle and each time this issue is discussed, it is invariably mentioned that Union minister of finance Arun Jaitley is being given another portfolio. The latest round of reports have mentioned that Mr Jaitley’s protégé, minister for power Piyush Goyal, is likely to be the next finance minister. Mr Jaitley, it is said, is expected to be moved to the ministry of defence. This appears to be far-fetched as Mr Jaitley has already started working on the next Budget while Mr Goyal is not sufficiently senior or experienced to handle such a crucial portfolio. It appears that these stories have been circulated by the Mumbai-based corporate world.

Since Mr Goyal is from the city, he is well networked with the industrialists there. The speculation about Mr Jaitley’s move has also been fuelled by reports that defence minister Manohar Parrikar would like to return to Goa so that he can be projected as the party’s chief ministerial candidate before the next Assembly polls. There is some merit in the story about Mr Parrikar as he has not really taken to Delhi and is known to rush to Goa on some pretext or the other.

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist