New leaders add to BJP's, Congress' woes

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath Yogi is currently the flavour of the season. Ever since he was picked for this job by the BJP top brass, every move and decision made by him has been the subject of non-stop coverage by the media. Given the attention he is grabbing, the BJP leaders privately maintain that Yogi has managed to overshadow Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a media favourite. Perhaps it is for this reason that Yogi was not invited to speak at the BJP’s national executive meeting in Bhubaneswar last week though he was initially slated to address the gathering. None of the new chief ministers was called to take the floor at the meeting. Among the older lot who were asked include Devendra Fadnavis, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raghubar Das. Though PM Modi and Amit Shah expectedly dominated the proceedings, Yogi was easily the star of the show as he was most sought after by the participants. In fact, his rising popularity has created problems for the other new CMs. Apparently, people in Uttarakhand are already complaining that while Yogi has set a scorching pace at work since the moment he came in power, their CM Trivendra Singh Rawat appears to be missing in action.

The Congress has obviously not learnt any lessons from its poor electoral performance over the last three years as the party’s various state units remain embroiled in bitter factional battles. For instance, the old rivalry between former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and state unit chief Ajay Maken is far from over even though the Congress has been decimated in the capital. It is learnt that Ms Dikshit had recommended the names of nine candidates for the municipal corporation elections, but Mr Maken rejected these. The unhappiness over the distribution of tickets led to the exit of former Delhi minister Arvinder Singh Lovely (who joined the BJP) and others while large-scale sabotage by other disgruntled elements is not ruled out. The situation in Madhya Pradesh is no better. When its CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently stoked a controversy with his public statement that the Scindias of Gwalior had colluded with the British, his views were endorsed by former Congress MP and legislator Prem Chand Guddu, who declared that Mr Chouhan had only stated facts. This obviously embarrassed the Congress state unit. His reaction is being ascribed to reports that the Congress is likely to project  Jyotiraditya Scindia as its chief ministerial candidate. Incidentally, Mr Guddu is known to be close to former CM Digvijaya Singh who is supposedly unhappy about the issue.

Just when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was presiding over a meeting of the Union Cabinet which decided to do away with the use of red beacons atop official cars, his estranged wife Jashodaben was being accorded VIP treatment when she visited Mathura to pay obeisance at the Rangeshwar Temple. The local administration was in full attendance during her brief stopover. Jashodaben, who was accompanied by her family members and a posse of security personnel, was apparently hesitant to use the official vehicle made available for her, but she was persuaded to drop her objections. In fact, the local officialdom even held up the Shatabdi Express for her. When the train did not move after the scheduled one-minute halt at Mathura, passengers were told that it was delayed because of “some VIPs”. While the railway officials denied these reports, the locals disagreed. They said officers deputed to look after Jashodaben’s arrangements were so busy waiting on her in the VIP lounge that they lost track of time.

Congress circles have been abuzz ever since peace activist and novelist Janhavi Prasada presented a copy of her graphic novel Tales of Young Gandhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The reaction in the party is understandable as the author is the daughter of senior party leader Jitendra Prasad and sister of former Union minister Jitin Prasada who lost in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. While the family stressed that nothing political should be read into this event, there is no stopping the Congress from indulging in endless speculation that Janhavi Prasada was trying to build bridges with the BJP.

The development could have been dismissed as a courtesy call but for the fact that Janhavi Prasada made it a point to tweet her photograph presenting a copy of the book to the Prime Minister and followed it up with another tweet which said “PM’s vision to bring back Gandhi with new-age tools is super” while responding to her critics, “Forgiveness was a trait Gandhi believed in, let’s not make anyone an untouchable”.