Anita Katyal | Is Sisodia headed for Rajya Sabha? Yogi and Rajnath fighting turf war

Speculation about Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s plan to shift to the Rajya Sabha refuses to die down even though the party has repeatedly denied all these reports. According to the Delhi political grapevine, Mr Kejriwal will sit it out. Instead, he is likely to nominate former Delhi deputy chief minister and close confidant Manish Sisodia for the Rajya Sabha seat if the party’s sitting member Sanjeev Arora wins the Ludhiana West assembly by-election. In fact, Mr Arora’s nomination as the AAP’s candidate for this bypoll had triggered speculation about Mr Kejriwal’s move to the Upper House. AAP insiders maintain there were always doubts about this as it would be difficult for Mr Kejriwal to share space with his estranged colleague Swati Maliwal who had a bitter falling out with him after she accused his aide of assaulting her. She has since been on the warpath and has joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party in running an aggressive campaign against Mr Kejriwal. Mr Sisodia, they said, would be the obvious choice given his proximity to Mr Kejriwal and the fact that he is privy to the party’s internal confidential matters. It is no coincidence then that the approval for the registration of an FIR against Mr Sisodia for financial irregularities in a pending case came just when his name was in circulation for a Rajya Sabha seat.

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh once enjoyed immense clout in the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Though he has been winning his Lok Sabha seat comfortably, his support base in the state party has shrunk, having been overtaken by newcomers like chief minister Yogi Adityanath who has acquired his own fan following. BJP insiders said Mr Singh has been trying to retrieve lost ground in his home state, especially since the party’s state president Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh is said to be close to him. It is believed that it was at Rajnath Singh’s instance that the list of prospective district presidents sent by Bhupendra Singh to the party’s central leadership had more than a sizeable number of Thakurs. Others believe Yogi Adityanath, also a Thakur like Rajnath Singh, was making a push for his own candidates belonging to his community. In the end, the list was sent back for revision.

Former Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu has been keeping a low profile in Delhi since he demitted office in 2022. A people’s person, Mr Naidu was particularly accessible to the media irrespective of the post he held. His doors were always open to the press when he was the BJP president and also as parliamentary affairs minister. The annual lunch hosted by him was a must on every media person’s winter calendar. After a short gap, Naidu has now restarted his luncheon gatherings. He recently hosted presspersons to a delicious Andhra meal to celebrate his granddaughter’s marriage. Mr Naidu also sought to renew his contact with the media over breakfast with a group of journalists. Mr Naidu did not discuss politics but was a willing listener. In response to questions, he said he kept busy with speaking assignments, mostly in the South.

After alienating the Trinamul Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, there are fears that the Congress party’s enduring relationship with the RJD could run into trouble in the coming days. Not only has the Congress upped its game in Bihar with the launch of a “Naukri do, migration roko yatra”, it has given charge of this programme to its youth leader Kanhaiya Kumar. Besides Kanhaiya Kumar, Lok Sabha MP Pappu Yadav has also been drafted to help prepare the Congress for the year-end Bihar Assembly poll. This is bound to upset the RJD given its animus towards Kanhaiya and Pappu Yadav. The RJD had refused to accommodate Kanhaiya Kumar when he contested from Begusarai in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Similarly, the RJD was unwilling to accept Pappu Yadav as the Opposition alliance’s joint candidate from Purnea in last year’s general election. Yadav won but Kanhaiya Kumar lost and it was at the RJD’s bidding that the Congress moved him out of Bihar. The Congress then fielded Kanhaiya for the North East Delhi seat in the last Lok Sabha election. Kanhaiya had been lying low since his defeat.

Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta joined the ranks of several first time CMs appointed by the BJP in recent years. Mohan Yadav, Bhajan Lal Sharma and Nayab Singh Saini are the others who made their debut in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. There is a buzz in BJP circles that since these leaders are new to their job, they could do with some assistance and advice. It is being suggested that a group of senior leaders, drawn both from the BJP and the RSS, may be set up to ensure that the decisions taken by the chief ministers are aligned with the party’s worldview and the Central government’s policies.