Anita Katyal | Kejriwal missing, Atishi holds fort; ‘ghost’ voters on WB electoral rolls
After a brief falling out, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have been making efforts to mend their relationship which went through a rough patch in the run-up to last year’s Lok Sabha elections
Ever since his dramatic arrival on the capital’s political scene in 2012 following an anti-corruption campaign, former Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal never lost an opportunity to use the media to his advantage. Locked in a constant battle with the Modi government-appointed lieutenant governor, Mr Kejriwal managed to grab headlines and eyeballs given that he had a lot to complain about the Centre’s uncooperative attitude towards an Opposition-ruled state. In fact, the AAP leader ensured that he remained in the news when he refused to step down as chief minister even after his arrest in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. But it’s a different story today. Mr Kejriwal has been virtually incognito after his shock defeat in the recent Delhi Assembly election. He is barely seen or heard from these days. It would have been expected that a combative Mr Kejriwal would come out all guns blazing after the CAG’s audit report on his government’s liquor policy was tabled in the Delhi Assembly. But not so. The burden of defending his government’s excise policy has now fallen on his successor and Delhi Assembly leader of Opposition Atishi who has been left to face the newly-elected BJP government’s ire against AAP while Mr Kejriwal contemplates his future course of action.
It is ironic that in all the years the Delhi government was led by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, it was the Bharatiya Janata Party which headed the capital’s cash-rich Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Their roles have now been reversed. The BJP is now the new Delhi government boss but it is AAP which runs the show in the MCD, having won the last civic election. Even as Mr Kejriwal remains sequestered following his electoral defeat, internal discussions are on remaining relevant in Delhi. For starters, AAP strategists suggested that the party take advantage of the fact that it controls the MCD by undertaking a series of populist measures having an immediate impact on the lives of people. It is in this connection that the AAP-led MCD has decided on a house tax waiver scheme for Delhi residents and also regularised 12,000 contractual workers in the civic body. But given the AAP’s current poor standing, it will not be easy for its leaders to take credit for these decisions. Besides, there is no guarantee that the AAP will succeed in retaining its hold over the MCD as the BJP is bound to “persuade” the rival party’s corporators to shift loyalties.
West Bengal is currently in the midst of labharthi wars with chief minister Mamata Banerjee pitted against the Centre on the issue of welfare schemes. With state Assembly elections due next year, Ms Banerjee has started selecting her targets for the disbursement of budget benefits which is being seen as a clear strategy to outmanoeuvre the Modi government’s tax bonanza for the middle class announced in this year’s budget. For instance, the West Bengal government recently announced hefty salary hikes, ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 80,000, for junior and senior doctors. These doctors had called out the corrupt practices and the system run by the Trinamul Congress government after a trainee doctor at the R.G. Kar Hospital was raped and murdered. The Modi government, on the other hand, is targeting the state government for not implementing Central schemes like the Ayushman Bharat Yojana and has withheld funds for the MNREGA and PM Awas Yojana on the ground that the accounts had not been maintained properly. The Centre has further accused the Mamata government of siphoning off funds by adding false names of beneficiaries. Ms Banerjee has hit back, saying a Centre-backed organisation had been deployed in West Bengal to replace names of local voters with those of outsiders from as far as Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat.
After a brief falling out, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have been making efforts to mend their relationship which went through a rough patch in the run-up to last year’s Lok Sabha elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders are now mindful of paying due respect to the Sangh as the party needs its foot soldiers for amplifying BJP’s message to the voters. Recently, while speaking at the inaugural function of the 98th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, Mr Modi heaped praise on the RSS, saying it was a privilege to have been inspired by the Sangh to live for the nation. Now that the rift between the BJP and the RSS is in the past, there is a possibility that Mr Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat could be seen together at a function in Maharashtra during the Gudi Padwa celebrations on March 30. Though there has been a rapprochement between them, the BJP and the RSS have yet to forge a consensus on naming the next BJP president as the current party chief J.P. Nadda’s three-year tenure ended over a year ago. Several reasons are being cited for this delay but the political grapevine says the names suggested by the RSS do not meet with the BJP’s approval and vice-versa.
