Congress proves its point and re-claims its strategic position in INDI alliance

New Delhi: Though Bhartiya Janata Party has got a comfortable  majority  in Delhi, Assembly  polls,  it’s the Grand Old Party, Indian National   Congress,  which has emerged as  the ultimate winner of  Top Spot at  the much touted INDI alliance, a national alternative to  Modi-Shah led NDA. INC has also proved, it’s the only national alternative to the   new juggernaut  NDA,  at the Raisina Hills seat of power!

With the mood of  Delhi’s electorate  clearly  visible in Voting numbers,   current Numero Uno of Indian political power BJP,  has  received an ‘undeclared  Gift’  from its  political foe,  Congress Party,  a  valuable parcel  containing  14 seats in the Delhi Assembly.  So BJP has to  reach out to the Grand Old Party (INC) to  deliver the country a ‘Congress-Mukt Bharat’.  

The  ‘giant-killer’ at New Delhi seat, Parvesh Verma  could have lost his seat to former CM Arvind Kejriwal, had  Sandeep Dikshit, not split  4,568   votes,  Same is the case with ex- Dy. CM Manish Sisodia who lost to BJPs TarvinderSingh Marwah by meagre 675 votes, where  Congress’ Farhad Suri splitting  6,866 and 12 more  AAP candidates, who lost  with little margins  (almost as much as the Congress candidates’ tally).

Will  the opposition INDI alliance settle its leadership issue or disband the ‘Gathbandhan’ formed in June 2022 to  chaalenge BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections?  It is  a  proverbial ‘million Dollar Question’  which only time will tell.

INDI alliance has more top leaders than  ground-level loyal workers. Most of them are regional sataraps,  one-state, ‘one-gun cartriges’ or  overage  veterans struggling to regain power. Some of them have  history  with Power behind them and others  foresee  a ray of  light into future power.  Veterans like NCPs Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackrey,  Bhupinder Hooda,  Mamata Banerjee,  Pratibha Singh,  Mayawati,  and youngsters like Akhilesh Yadav, Sachin Pilot and many younger politicians across states make this group waiting for the divine luck . Only Siddaramaiah  in Karnataka, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu in Himachal Pradesh,  Omar Abdullah in Jammu & Kashmir, Hemant Soren  in Jharkhand and MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu can get some solace  of staying in their  regional terrains despite NDA storm shaking  old political  cartel ‘UPA’.

The INDI alliance launched with big fanfare in Patna and Bengalore over  two years back, is  in turmoil because of  their own ‘Karma’ of  not sharing  seats in  Haryana, West Bengal and now Delhi,  sticking with  regional votes and missing the National Target  and  facing  rival  BJP together,  the party that has  built up  a strong  vote  bank over the last decade and is always in Election Mode!

AAP,  the ‘illicit political child’ of India Against Corruption (IAC) movement  of 2010-14, led by veteran  Bhudan crusader  Anna Hazare, had the dreams of being  catapulted to national stage  and change  Political scenario in India  (no official car, house or  freebies). None of  the  IAC  campaign    supporters like  supercop  Kiran Bedi,  veteran lawyer Prashant Bhushan, yoga guru  Baba Ramdev, bureaucrat Arvind Kejriwal, young crusader Kumar Vishwas and others joining the  clean India campaign,  against then ruling Congress Party  led by Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh, ignoring  public cry against  corruption  in high places).  AAP supremo Kejriwal, Sisodia and other joined together  with the inkling of getting  parashuted  to the  national  stage, faulted in judging the Indian Voters’  mind and expectations.  (The term ‘illicit political child’ used  because none among the IAC campaigners  was in politics or had declared any  plan to launch a political party and displace  Congress).

Anna repeated the same mistake which Gandhi  did in 1946-47, JP  Narayan  did in 1977 — by not disbanding their organisations (Congress Party and  Sampooran Kranti-anti-emergency  front)  after  reaching the targets  thru’ ‘high-pitch struggles’  for change!

Yes, Delhi voters gave them full support thrice from 2013 to 2020, coupled with victory in  Punjab and  good numbers in Haryana, but Kejriwal led party made big  promises,  tall claims–will do this and that, yet failed to deliver in 12 years of being in power. Then  they started to  make ‘illicit money’ to fight state elections  fulfil national ambitions, Then they started to claim more constitutional status for Delhi in National Capital, reaching out to Supreme Court,   blaming PM Modi for using, Governor,  ED  against them and then attacking EC and EVMs. At election times  AAP dreamed of  capturing Goa, Haryana and now Delhi single-handedly and  refused to collaborate for adding split votes and share seats.

Congress lost 8-10 seats in Haryana because of AAP’s  adamant ways, infuriated by the latter offering less than 10 seats in Delhi out of 70, decided to play a spoiler and  put up strong candidates like Dikshit in New Delhi, Suri in Jangpura and in other seats.  By showing AAP its place in Delhi and national politics, Congress has sent a clear signals  to Mamata, Shinde, Pawar, Akhilesh and others, they should  consider Congress as senior partner in INDI alliance, as it has  enough traditional votes, in most  cities and villages across India, and  ‘sacrificial goats’  to unsettle anybody trying to  overtake the Grand Old Party INC.

Although most of the sataraps in INDI alliance are keen to encash their family  legacy votes,  viz., Rahul  Gandhi sitting over Gandhi-Nehru-Indira vote bank, Akhilesh  commanding Mulayam Singh’s  Yadav-Muslim vote pockets,  Mamata unwilling to  share Bengali vote bank, Abdullahs in J&K still living in  anti-India, pro Pak, Kashmiri sentiments,   MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu  sticking to  anti-North, anti-Hindi, pro-Tamil pride, they  would need to  sacrifice  their  regional pride  to  make a  healthy national  concoction  for grabbing the coveted seat atop Raisina Hills, Delhi!                                                                                                                             —Subhash C Vatsain, Editor

(Pics credit-nationalheraldindia,com, indiatoday.in and NewsOnRadar.com library)