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ROUND THE STATES
New Delhi, 25 January 2006
Turmoil In Bangalore
CONGRESS LEADERSHIP
TO BLAME
By Insaf
The Congress High Command has none but itself to blame for
the mess it currently faces in Karnataka and several other States, including
the poll-bound West Bengal and Kerala. In fact, the political developments at
Bangalore somewhat dampened the spirit of the party’s three-day plenary at
Hyderabad where the top leadership repeatedly emphasized the need for
rejuvenating the organization in the States, especially where it is presently
ruling, like in Karnataka and Kerala.
With Karnataka in mind, party Chief Sonia Gandhi stressed the need to
strictly follow the coalition “dharma”. Realization
dawned at the session that recent attempts to sideline the coalition ally, that
is the JD(S) of Deve Gowda, was at odds with the canons of coalition politics.
Expectedly, the JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister Deve
Gowda has himself now blessed his son, H.D. Kumaraswamy’s rebellion, walking
away with the majority of the MLAs to destabilize the Congress-led coalition
Government. He publicly stated that by doing
so Kumaraswamy had saved the JD(S). Gowda, who had initially denounced his
son’s rebellion as the “saddest day of my life”, took a “U-turn” after days of uncertainty
following a meeting with his son. Gowda
said Kumaraswamy had told him about a “plot” by former Chief Minister and now
Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna and expelled JD(S) leader Siddaramaiah to
split the JD(S). Gowda himself was feeling cheated by the Congress and Chief
Minister Dharam Singh.
All these 18 months since the Congress has been leading the
coalition Government in Karnataka, the senior partner was seldom inclined to
appease the ally. As a matter of fact
most of the boards and corporations are still under the control of the
Congress. After much pressure by Gowda,
few Congressmen resigned last year, but no new appointments were made by the
Chief Minister. Another great irritant
has been the intervention by former Chief Minister and now Governor of
Maharashtra S.M. Krishna. The Governor’s
frequent trips to Bangalore
were a sore point with Gowda. To make matters worse, Krishna’s
political friends like D.K. Shivkumar have been leading a vicious campaign
against the JD(S) and its leaders. Given
these fact, many in the Congress concede that the Central leadership cannot
escape responsibility for the turmoil in Bangalore.
* * * *
Congress Lapse In West Bengal
In West Bengal too, the
Congress leadership seems to be bungling at a time when the people of the State
are yearning for a change of the Government.
The Opposition parties, especially the Congress and the Trinamool
Congress of Mamata Banerjee have failed to work out any electoral deal for the
Assembly poll in April-May. This despite the
repeated pleas of the State’s veteran leader, A.B. Ghani Khan Chaudhury that
the Congress should talk to Mamata for unitedly challenging the Left rule. Even the workers of both the parties are keen
to join hands and contest the Assembly elections together to oust the CPM from
power. In fact, Chaudhary’s absence from
the Hyderabad
plenary is attributed by some as reflecting his anger against the Central
leadership ignoring his advice.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission is going ahead with its
efforts to ensure free and fair election this time. While re-checking the voters’ lists in all
the 19 districts of the State, the Commission teams have unearthed an offset press
that has been printing fake voter identity cards. A CPM leader from Bangaon, Parimal Biswas,
was arrested last week for running the press.
Biswas had also reportedly acquired a hologram software from Mumbai and
used it to make dud voter cards.
Meanwhile, the CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu has taken another potshot at the
Election Commission, alleging that the officers drawing up the electoral rolls
had failed to scratch out the names of those who had died or had moved out.
* * * *
Hurting Telugu
Pride
The Congress is slowly but surely losing its popularity in
all the southern States. Even in Andhra
Pradesh which organized the party’s plenary and made it a grand show, the
people have an unspoken grievance against the top Congress leadership. Their Telugu pride has been hurt by the brazen
neglect of their leader, the late PV Narasimha Rao, the first Prime Minister
from the State and indeed from the South.
He was conspicuous by his absence from among the portraits of national
leaders that provided a backdrop to the dais. Moreover, not a single poster or
banner carried Narasimha Rao’s photograph. In Kerala too, the Congress-led UDF
Government has suffered a setback with its veteran leader, Karunakaran floating
another party, Democratic Indira Congress. He is now having an electoral tie-up
with the Left Front, which is favoured to win next Assembly poll, as reflected
in the recent election to the local bodies.
* * * *
Amarinder Singh
Upbeat
Punjab’s Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh has reason to be upbeat,
as his Government completed four years in office on January 21. He finds himself comfortably saddled, backed
by a strong economy and a long list of achievements during his tenure. He is confident that the Congress will have
smooth sailing in the next Assembly poll a year away. Among his great achievements is massive
investment in industry to the tune of Rs.43,000 crore. This is expected to generate employment for
about 7.5 lakh people. Amarinder Singh
has also claimed that his Government has successfully implemented all the poll
promises the party made. Prominent among these is provision of free electricity
to farmers. This, alongwith fast and complete procurement with hassle-free
payments, he claims, has consolidated the farmers’ vote for to the Congress.
* * * *
Hooda Circumvents
Law
In adjoining Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda
has chosen to follow the route taken by Amarinder
Singh and: appointed Parliamentary Secretaries to circumvent the provisions of
the 91st Amendment Act, which mandates that the number of Ministers
should not exceed 15 per cent of the total strength of the State legislature. He
has appointed one Chief Parliamentary Secretary and seven Parliamentary
Secretaries to retain the support of influential State Congress leaders and to
sideline his arch rival Bhajan Lal. But he runs a risk. Himachal’s Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh
too had appointed Parliamentary Secretaries. But the High Court quashed these
appointments on the plea that these did not owe their origin to any
constitutional or legal provision.
* * * *
ULFA Terror
Continues
The dreaded ULFA continues its terror campaign in
Assam. The underground militants set off
as many as eight attacks within hours over the last week-end – three grenade
strikes and five blasts on important establishment across the State. Their targets included two gas pipelines, a
power transmission tower, a bus and a CRPF camp. Meanwhile, the Centre, on its part, is
continuing its peace dialogue with the ULFA-nominated People’s Consultative
Group, a group of overground sympathizers of the militants, which includes the
Assamese litterateur, Indira Goswami. It
has scheduled a second round of talks with them in New Delhi on 7 February.
* * * *
In PM’s Footsteps!
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam
Singh has cocked a snook at Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by
re-inducting the controversial and influential independent MLA, Raghunath
Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya into his Cabinet. He had been forced to resign about two months
ago after the Supreme Court quashed the decision of the Mulayam Government to
revoke POTA against him. The Court had
also transferred his case to Madhya Pradesh.
A Jabalpur POTA court released Raja Bhaiya on bail last month and
Mulayam promptly re-inducted him last week.
As eyebrows went up, Mulayam’s second-in-command and party General
Secretary Amar Singh smilingly clarified: “We are only following in the
footsteps of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who has Ministers like Lalu Prasad
Yadav, Shibu Soren and Taslimuddin.” ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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