Round The States

New Delhi, 27 January 2024

INDIA Bloc Discord

WB, PUNJAB TO EKLA CHALO

By Insaf 

West Bengal and Punjab have put a spoke in the INDIA bloc wheel, as of now. Both TMC and AAP respectively have said a big no to seat-sharing with Congress and on Wednesday last announced they would go alone (ekla chalo) for 2024 battle in their States. Some view it as a setback to unity efforts against BJP, others see it as regional parties posturing for some hard bargaining. TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told media “Let Congress fight 300 seats on its own. The regional parties are together and can contest the rest. However, we will not tolerate any interference by them (Congress) in Bengal…at national level, TMC as part of INDIA bloc, will decide its strategy after elections. We will do whatever it takes to defeat BJP.” Apparently, Didi is not just peeved Congress is asking for too much, turning down her seat-sharing formula, but rather its state unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who has been persistently making uncharitable remarks and worse the party did not extend basic courtesy of informing about Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra, entering her State on Thursday! 

Her counterpart in Punjab, Bhagwant Mann is on the same page. Said he: “We are not going with them (Congress)…Punjab will become a hero in the country and AAP will win 13-0 in the polls”. Moreover, it has already held discussions on probable candidates and names of 40-odd are being considered. A jarring note, alright, in the backdrop of AAP and Congress having tied up for Chandigarh mayoral polls, to be held on January 30. Congress will have to weigh options but has been quick in appeasing Didi. Said its spokesperson: bloc INDIA “can’t be imagined without Mamata Banerjee…TMC is an important pillar of the alliance.” There’s hope of overcoming ‘small differences’ and asserted the bloc ‘will fight Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal and all (partners) will participate.” The state BJP, which has been gaining ground, is amused and questioned ‘ideological conviction’ of the bloc. “It was all about just opposing Prime Minister and BJP to protect their own political identities.” Not off the mark, but it should remember the proverbial saying ‘politics makes strange bedfellows.’

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Bihar Rumblings

The Modi government’s shrewd decision to bestow country’s highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna posthumously on socialist, Jan Nayak and former Bihar Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur months before general election appears to have set the cat among the pigeons. The media is abuzz questioning whether Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is going back to BJP camp as his speech praising Modi on the eve of Thakur’s 100th birth anniversary on the one hand and taking a swipe at dynastic politics has raised many an eyebrow. Worse, Rohini Acharya (Lalu Yadav’s daughter) choosing to take a potshot at him with X posts “changing his ideology as the wind changes its direction”, (deleted later), wouldn’t bode well for ruling JD(U)-RJD alliance. Importantly, BJP is silently watching for it may well have scored more than anticipated. The sheer timing of the award would help it earn support among backward castes, especially EBCs (Thakur’s caste being part of it), which Nitish is increasingly wooing with the caste census. Plus, it would try to dent the hold Lalu and Nitish have as the OBC leaders. At same time, a question that’s doing the rounds is whether the award would be rewarding for the BJP to get Nitish away from INDIA bloc and into NDA. Tale of jumping on and off the bandwagon?

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Manipur Treads Dangerously

Manipur continues to tread dangerously! Wednesday last apparently saw the subordination of the Biren Singh government to a radical Meitei group Arambai Tenggol, with a large number of armed volunteers. In all, 37 of the state’s Meitei MLAs and two Meitei MPs representing the valley areas met at Kangla Fort in what is being reported as “summons” issued by the group. They all took an oath to promote and pursue Tenggol’s demands, which include removing illegal Kuki tribes from the ST list, replacing Assam Rifles with another force and scrapping the Suspension of Operations agreement with armed militants, who allegedly killed civilians. This after, a special Home Ministry team arrived in the troubled state for talks between Meitei and Kuki communities. 

The development which has largely gone unreported by the mainstream media, triggered a strong statement from a Kuki-Zomi body based in Churachandpur, the ITLF. It said: “For the first time in history, a militia that led attacks on innocent civilians because of their ethnicity and which openly displays sophisticated weapons stolen from police armouries was able to order state lawmakers, including the chief minister, to attend a meeting it had called and made the MLAs endorse their demands.” Worse, it added “Manipur state police and central security forces remained mute spectators as Arambai Tenggol leader Korounganba Khuman arrived at the venue in a police vehicle, and the militant group proceeded to administer an oath-taking ceremony to MLAs. All these happened even as a special team sent by the central government is camping nearby in the city. Why did the world’s largest democracy allow this… Today’s events have shown that Manipur’s government has submitted its authority to an armed militant group”. Nine long months have passed since May 3 last year, will the Centre have a solution or will it continue to remain a mute spectator and allow the crisis to deepen?   

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From Ram To Rashtra

From ‘Pran Pratishtha’ to ‘Rashtra Pratishtha’. With the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya completed before the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Modi changes gears and sounded the poll bugle on Thursday last from western UP’s Bulandshahr. His message to the public at the massive rally: “On 22 January I got darshan (glimpse) of Lord Ram and today I get darshan of janata janardhan… in Ayodhya I said we from Dev to Desh and from Ram to Rashtra is the path we now have to take and complete our mission of an advanced nation by 2047…” Indeed, the timing was perfect to woo the voter and thus came along announcement of development projects worth over Rs 19,100 crore and the usual attack on Congress, wherein for decades after Independence, development was kept confined to a few regions only and UP ignored. Clearly, the BJP is aiming to score better than just 8 seats out of 14 in politically crucial western UP in 2019. Importantly, he chose to recall former chief minister, late Kalyan Singh, in his bastion and under whose tenure the Babri Masjid was brought down by kar sevaks. Guess, the toxic mix of religion and politics will pay dividends. ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)