By Rahil Nora Chopra
An
old saying in Indian politics is that small and regional parties always favour
a weaker government over a strong one. The late BSP Leader Kanshi Ram had
always claimed that the party would flourish only when there is a weak
government. With the defeat of BJP in the crucial states of Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the regional and small parties have started
bargaining with BJP. The TDP left the BJP one year ago and recently RLSP of
Upendra Kushwaha has left. Immediately after that Ram Vilas Paswan started
bargaining hard and BJP president Amit Shah has announced a Rajya Sabha seat
for Ramvilas Paswan from Assam and 6 seats for his Lok Janshakti party in the
coming Lok Sabha election from Bihar. Having seen the bargaining power of
Paswan, Apna Dal, which has two Lok Sabha MPs, is trying to bargain for a
ministerial berth for Anupriya Patel’s husband Ashish Patel, an MLC in Uttar
Pradesh and more Lok Sabha seats from the state. Ashish Patel complains that
the BJP leaders in UP are ignoring his party although it is part of the
coalition. In the same way Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party of Om Prakash
Rajbhar, a minister in UP, is openly criticising the Centre as well as the UP
governments and did not attend the PM’s programme in Ghazipur where he belongs.
The Shiv Sena is also criticising the BJP governments at Centre as well as in
Maharashtra and threatening to leave the alliance although it has not resigned
from either ministry. They are only trying to bargain as much as they can after
BJP has lost in the Hindi heartland states.
ALLIANCES
FACE FORMATIVE PANGS
After
wining in three states Congress is worried about the behaviour of BSP and SP in
Uttar Pradesh and so many contradictory rumours are spreading in this regard.
In fact, there is no communication or exchange of views between Congress and
SP, BSP at present. Mayawati and Akhilesh’s absence from the swearing in
ceremonies of three Congress chief ministers shows their tough posturing.
Akhilesh stayed away only to show solidarity with Mayawati and later he showed
his annoyance for not accommodating his only MLA in the in the Madhya Pradesh
ministry although SP offered unconditional support to Congress. BSP chief
Mayawati has also announced backing of her two MLAs for the Kamal Nath
government. Meanwhile, Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is trying
to meet and convince Mayawati and Akhilesh to join the Federal Front. According
to sources, both Mayawati and Akhilesh are seriously thinking of joining the
third front. TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who has cordial relations with UPA
chairperson Sonia Gandhi, has met Chandrasekhar Rao and discussed about the
Federal Front but she has not shown the inclination to join. The Congress party
state unit in West Bengal is not keen for an understanding with TMC. In
Karnataka, although the Congress state leaders do not want to give more seats
to Janata Dal Secular, the central leadership does not want to disturb the
coalition it has with JD(S) in Karnataka. The main problem in the formation of
an alliance is coming from UP, where SP, BSP want to give only 8 seats to
Congress, including the two where it won and 6 where it stood second in the
2014 Lok Sabha elections while Congress wants more seats. Meanwhile, BSP and SP
do not want to see a triangular fight in UP and, therefore, political observers
say that at last Congress will give some seats in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and
Rajasthan to SP and BSP and will get more seats in Uttar Pradesh to build a
strong national Opposition Alliance against the BJP in 2019.
BJP
LOOKS FOR A SCAPEGOAT IN RAJASTHAN
In
the 2014 Lok Sabha election the BJP won 25 out of the 25 seats in Rajasthan,
but they are targeting only 15 seats this time in view of its loss in the
recent assembly election. Although BJP wants to blame Vasundhara Raje for the
defeat, nobody wants to come forward to blame her. The same situation prevailed
when BJP lost two seats in the by-elections in Rajasthan and the observer sent
by the party central leadership to the state for feed back had openly blamed
the working of Vasundhra Raje and her government. But the leadership showed no
courage to take any action against her, but replaced the state president. The
new man, Ashok Parnami, himself lost the election. Prakash Javedkar, who had
gone to the state as observer before the assembly election had given his report
saying that the party can win only 50 seats. But the party won 73 seats and now
the supporters of Vasundhara Raje are claiming that it is because of her own
hard work. Now the BJP is looking for someone else to put the blame on and
raise the morale of BJP workers and leaders in Rajasthan.
BJP
CHANGES TRACK IN BENGAL
To
get the target of 22 seats from the 42 seats from West Bengal, BJP has started
a programme to meet farmers and expose the TMC government and its policies in
the wake of the failure of Rath Yatras due to court cases. It was a planned
that after one month of Yatras there will be a huge rally in Brigade Maidan in
Kolkata by Prime Minister Modi but as the yatra proved to be a non-starter, the
Kolkata rally stands cancelled, affecting the morale of local BJP workers in
the state. So, the “Kisan Sampark Abhiyan” has been conceived as filler, in
which workers and state leaders will tell the farmers about the wrong policies
of the TMC government, which are responsible for their plight. The state
leadership has also organised a programme against the “murder of democracy” in
West Bengal. At the same time chief minister Mamata Banerjee is claiming that
the farmers of West Bengal are far better than those of other states and that
the Centre’s policies are against the farmers.
MUDDLE
OVER UTTARAKHAND SEATS
Bhagat
Singh Koshyari, Lok Sabha MP from Nanital, has informed the BJP central leaders
that he will not fight the 2019 election. Although Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri and
Koshyari have health problems due to old age, Pauri and Nanital will be
available for new aspirants. National
Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s son Shaurya Doval is pitching for Pauri while BJP
state president Ajay Bhatt wants to fight from Nanital. Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri
wants that his seat should be given to his daughter Ritu Khanduri. Tirath Singh
Rawat, Colonel Kothiyal and Satpal Maharaj are also claimants for Pauri. At
present Tirath Singh Rawat is in charge of Himachal Pradesh and busy there. In
Tehri, Vijay Bhaugana wants his son Saket to get the ticket. Maharani Rajya
Laxmi is currently the MP from Tehri. For Nanital Bachi Singh Rawat and Bishan
Singh Chuphal are also in the race but Koshyari is against Bachi Singh.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Harish Rawat has not disclosed whether he will fight
from Haridwar or Nanital. Last time his wife lost to Ramesh Pokriyal from
Haridwar. (IPA)
The post Small Parties Flourish With Weak Governments appeared first on Newspack by India Press Agency.
