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Rajya Sabha Polls:SONIA COMES UP TRUMPS,Poonam I Kaushish,26 June 2010 Print E-mail

Political Diary

New Delhi, 26 June 2010

Rajya Sabha Polls

SONIA COMES UP TRUMPS

By Poonam I Kaushish

 

Moonh Mein Ram, Bagal Mein Churi. This famous Hindi proverb encapsulates the Congress-led UPA-II continuing fallacy of false promise of Congress Ka Haath Aam Aadmi Ke Saath. No matter it is nothing but a mirage especially against the steep hike in petroleum prices last week which will further fuel inflation and lead to a steep increase in all round prices. Clearly, the aam aadmi already reeling under the strain of meeting his household expenses sees the Congress move as Jale Par Namak Chirakna (adding salt to wounds) 

 

True, the first casualty of this measure will be the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament. Already Congress allies Trinamul’s Mamata, RJD’s Lalu, Samajwadi’s Mulayam and DMK have distanced themselves from this harsh measure. Music to Opposition ears as it is ready with a litany of issues to ensure a stormy session. From extradition of former Union carbide CEO Warren Anderson to India, increase in compensation for the Bhopal gas victims, honour killings, caste census et al.

 

Clearly, the Government cup of woes is bound to overflow and it would need deft tightrope walking against the backdrop of whimsical allies in the Lok Sabha and no majority in the Rajya Sabha despite winning most of the 55 seats from 13 States in the just-concluded biennial elections to the House. With numbers not on its side, the Congress would have to sing the hum-saath-saath-hain mantra on several key legislations including its pet reforms programmes.

 

But the moot point: What prompted the Government to bite the bullet and free petroleum prices from government control? Why did the aam aadmi’s rakshak Sonia give her assent? Answers can be found in the recent biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha which underscores once again the consummate politician Sonia has become today.

 

True, the Congress tally came down to 69 from 71 in the 245-member Upper House but the Congress Chief astutely used the elections to tighten the Congress grip on existing allies, win over new friends and prospective alliance partners and in the process notched up a few more Rajya Sabha seats than they had previously calculated. Given that the Party needed seats to accommodate all its retiring MPs

 

In UP, she got the Samajwadi to make up the shortfall of 15 votes to get Gandhi family friend Satish Sharma elected to the Rajya Sabha. Mulayam was only too eager to oblige with his surplus vote given that he is itching to join the “ally-problem struck” UPA. Earlier too, he helped the Congress win a UP Legislative Council seat. It remains to be seen if Mulayam is accommodated in the Government now or later.

 

A gung-ho Sonia intends killing two birds with one stone. The Congress Chief has communicated to her some of her highly strung allies like Trinamul’s Mamata that if they ‘misbehave,’ others are waiting to join the UPA bandwagon. The SP with 21 MPs is enough to counter Mamata, though it is highly unlikely that the stormy petrel would part ways with the Congress before the West Bengal Assembly elections.

 

Two, by taking Mulayam under the UPA wing, she could use it to break the ‘Mandal’ Yadav trio's bonhomie, RJD’s Lalu, SP  and JD (U)’s Sharad, to tackle other important issues, like the Women’s Reservation Bill.

 

In Andhra too, the Congress won four seats thanks to Sonia successfully bridging the shortfall by enlisting the support of Chiranjeevi’s fledgling Praja Rajyam Party. Thereby effectively dousing the uprisings from within its ranks namely Jaganmohan, son of former CM Rajshekhar Reddy who periodically flexes his muscle. But in Karnataka, its failure to sew a pact with Deve Gowda’s JD(S) cost it one seat.

 

The usual suspects have all been re-elected: Union Ministers whose term had ended. The only hic-cup was over Commerce Minister Anand Sharma. Recall his term of the Upper House ended in March last but no safe seat was available. The Congress didn’t have the numbers in Himachal and Haryana where he could have safely been re-nominated from refused to oblige. That left Rajasthan where a sitting MP’s death got him the re-election. 

 

The only silver lining for the UPA II is that ally DMK won three more seats (with none retiring) increasing its tally to 7. Sharad Pawar’s NCP retained its tally of six members while Mamata’s Trinamul and Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference got two each.

 

For the main Opposition Party BJP the Rajya Sabha poll is the only rainbow in its dark political sky. The Saffron Sangh managed to retain its 10 retiring seats. It scored impressive victories in Karnataka and Rajasthan, but lost a seat in Jharkhand. It succeeded in bringing a veteran like Ram Jethmalani from Rajasthan and Congress attempts to queer the pitch by fielding former Union minister Santosh Bagrodia failed miserably. But by failing to get its act together in Jharkhand it lost a sitting MP thanks to cross voting. 

 

By ensuring the victory of LJP Chief’s Ram Vilas Paswan, the RJD supremo Lalu has shown that he may be down but not out in Bihar where elections are due soon. Not only has he stalled Congress backroom manoeuvers to wean Paswan into its fold but now the duo can provide credible Opposition to JD(U)-BJP Government in the State. For showman Paswan desperate to return to the political limelight a tie-up with RJD was a small price to pay.

 

Mulayam’s Samajwadi emerged the biggest loser as it could get only two MPs elected though 7 were retiring. Effectively bringing down the SP’s strength from 10 to 5. The BSP secured seven seats (only three were retiring) The BJD too got three seats though only one of its MPs was retiring. The AIADMK won only two seats out of four retiring. Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP too gained significantly as it secured two seats with none of its members retiring.

 

Having tasted the crumbs of office, two former MPs make a comeback, Ram Jethmalani and Vijaya Mallya. Surprising is Ram Jethmalani’s renomination by the BJP. Not only did its Rajasthan wing cry foul for giving a nomination to an “outsider”, but it evoked sharp angst as the eminent lawyer and former Union Minister had unsuccessfully contested against the then Prime Minister Vajpayee from Lucknow in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. Interestingly, Jethmalani ‘wormed’ his way in thanks to Advani and Narender Modi. Both whom he “advised”. The former in the Babri Masjid demolition case and the latter on the 2002 Gujarat riots case.

 

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya clearly ‘intoxicated’ Karnataka with his charm to wean a seat from there. Gowda’s JD (S) backed him and so did the ruling BJP. It is no secret that the ‘king of good times’ has been desperately shopping for a seat. He was all set to get elected from Kashmir courtesy Farooq but his son Omar played party pooper.

 

Arguably what is it about the Rajya Sabha that has money bags, powerful industrialist and power-brokers panting to get a slice of the action? In a chat with me, Mallya succinctly asserted: “I have the money to buy everything but the trappings of power. As MP I can walk into any Minister’s or babu’s room and he has to attend to me. I can raise any issue, demand to be heard even make outlandish demands, peddle influence etc”.

 

Sadly, with each passing year the character and quality of the House of Elders is sharply deterioration. Becoming more of a house of money bags and fixers. Mayawati let the cat out by virtually auctioning the nomination to the highest bidder a few years ago. If one had hoped that the Supreme Court would set things right it was not to be. It held that a candidate need not be a domicile of a State from where he seeks elections. Thereby opening the floodgates of powerbrokers and Lok Sabha losers finding ‘safe’ Rajya Sabha seats for a price and more. 

 

In sum, as the Government pushes through its agenda the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh needs to do some soul searching. It is all very well for him to push through his reform agenda but at the same time he cannot afford to lose the goodwill of the common man. Already over the years, Parliament’s role as a torch bearer of the aam aadmi’s concerns has seen diminishing returns. The coming months will decide whether UPA’s relationship with Parliament will be as messy as Indian politics. It remains to be seen whether Rajya Sabha will cry a halt to the Government’s onslaught on the aam janta.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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