By Rahil Nora Chopra
Congress sources say state-level seat adjustments for the Assembly elections have been left to the respective state units and a grand alliance of opposition parties for the Lok Sabha would be taken up only after the five state assembly elections are over. But the opposition alliance would give proper weightage to the regional parties, which would be the key to unity. As part of the move, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP have finalised the adjustment on 38 seats from 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and the rest would be decided soon. In a parallel exercise, Telugu Desam’s N Chandrababu Naidu has met Mayawati and discussed the modalities of forming a national alliance for the general elections. In Bihar, although chief minister Nitish Kumar and BJP president Amit Shah have announced an agreement to contest equal number of seats and the other alliance partners RLSP and Lok Janshakti Party have claimed that they would remain in the alliance, both Upendra Kushwaha and Chirag Paswan are said to be in communication with Tejashvi Yadav to explore possibilities of working together.
BENGAL BJP PREPARES FOR 2021
Bengal BJP has started planning not only for the coming Lok Sabha election but also for the 2021 Assembly elections. BJP is planning to organise three Rath Yatras in the state. According to BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, the Yatras will be taken out from the month of December. The first one will start from Tarapeth city of Birbhum district, followed by one from Cooch Behar after two days. The third Yatra will be from 24 South Pargana district. The dates will be announced ahead of the coming assembly elections for five states. Each Yatra will cover 14 Lok Sabha seats. The party is also planning a big rally in Kolkata in January 2019. Important central leaders are expected to participate in these Yatra and rallies. According to the BJP state president, the central leadership has set a target of 22 Lok Sabha seats to be won in Bengal.
RAJASTHAN BJP, CONGRESS DOGGED BY FACTIONALISM
Both BJP and Congress are facing serious problems in the distribution of assembly tickets in Rajasthan due to groupism within their respective parties. Although Congress has appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Selja Kumari to find suitable candidates, the infighting between the groups owing allegiance to Ashok Gehlot and Sachin pilot group is not showing any signs of ending. The committee is facing difficulties in carrying out its work and in the same way infighting in BJP between the Vasundhra Raje Scindia group and faction supporting the central leadership is continuing. The BJP central leadership has appointed Prakash Javdekar as the election in-charge of the state. While he has openly stated that Vasundhra Raje Scindia will be the chief ministerial face, the ticket distribution is being decided directly by the central leadership, which is causing dissent in the state party.
UTTARAKHAND PARTIES WARY OF LOCAL POLLS
Uttarakhand is facing a piquant situation where neither BJP nor Congress wants the local body elections to be conducted ahead of the parliamentary elections, although the state government has as ordered holding the election on orders from the Uttarakhand high court. Neither side wants to face the election now as they fear that the results might influence voting in the parliamentary elections. If the results are negative, both chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and state Congress chief Pritam Singh fear that these would make their respective positions untenable are both are facing serious dissident activities. Pritam Singh has been completely ignoring the followers of Harish Rawat and Kishore Upadhyay; so they are opposing Pritam Singh. In the same way the chief minister and his minister Madan Kaushik with Ajay Bhatt have distributed tickets to their supporters and an adverse outcome would be disastrous for Rawat.
DEMAND FOR DALIT CM IN MP
The SC-ST votes will be crucial for chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his BJP in the coming assembly election in Madhya Pradesh. Although Mayawati’s decision not to enter into an alliance with Congress gives some comfort to Chouhan, a demand that the next chief minister of MP must be a Dalit is proving to be a headache for him. Party leader Indresh Gajbhiye is spearheading this campaign and he recently organised d a meeting of SC-ST Parishad to which he invited senior former minister Anghpriya Gautam, who reiterated the demand saying that 40 percent of the population in Madhya Pradesh is SC-ST. He further pointed out that the chief minister, Governor, Speaker, home minister, state party president, the chief secretary and DGP are all non-Dalits. (IPA)
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