Reporters' diary - BSP’s jumbo stride

Maya’s new slogan

It is well known that the Bahujan Samaj Party is reverting to its dalit agenda in Uttar Pradesh and apart from necessary changes in the party organisation, BSP supremo Mayawati has also ordered a new slogan for the party — one that will appeal to her votebank. The new BSP slogan will now be “Bachcha bachcha Bhim ka, BSP ki team ka” and this replaces the earlier slogan which said, “Dilli ki majboori hai, Mayawati zaroori hai”.

“Behenji (Mayawati) wanted the new slogan to be party-centric,” said a party leader. Apparently, Ms Mayawati does not wish to fuel a revolt in the party since a large number of BSP leaders who have walked out of the party in recent months have accused her of running a “personality-dominated organisation and straying from the BSP ideology”.

Interestingly, the BSP is also busy downplaying its brahmin connect and party workers have been asked not to use old slogans like “Brahmin shankh bajayega, haathi Dilli jayega” and “Haathi nahin Ganesha hai, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hai” that weighed down the BSP campaign during last year’s Lok Sabha elections.

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Tu Tu Main Main

The rivalry between former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi and his bête noire, Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Bhupesh Baghel seems to have reached a new low. Mr Jogi had apparently been waiting for an opportunity to strike back after literally being treated as a pariah in the party in the past several months, thanks to the alleged machinations of Mr Baghel. He had been denied a role by the PCC leadership in the just-concluded urban and rural local body polls in the state, on the pretext that “a leader of Mr Jogi’s stature should not campaign in local body elections”.

Not one to let sleeping dogs lie, Mr Jogi chose the PCC executive committee meeting, held last fortnight, to settle scores, leading to an interesting verbal duel.
Mr Jogi fired the first salvo against Mr Baghel in the meeting when he pulled him up for doing nothing in the alleged “mega” public distribution system (PDS) scam in the state, except criticising the Raman Singh government. “Why he (Mr Baghel) is not moving court on the matter. Only issuing statements serves no purpose,” Mr Jogi remarked, virtually poking fun at Mr Baghel for confining his attack on the government to press conferences only.

Mr Baghel retorted saying, “Why does my criticism of Raman Singh government pain Mr Jogi?” He was apparently hinting at Mr Jogi’s camaraderie with the chief minister. The maverick Mr Jogi, however, could read between the lines and hit back, “Mr Baghel is upset because I have shown him the mirror... His reaction has reminded me of a famous saying in Hindi, Khisiyani Billi Khamba Noche (acting out of sheer frustration).” “It is not Mr Jogi but I who have shown him the mirror. Whenever the party faces challenges or is in trouble, why does Mr Jogi take refuge in spiritualism, sings bhajans and attends religious discourses?” came Mr Baghel’s rustic jibe. While the CGPCC sulks, this war of words is sure to leave the state BJP happy.

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Flattery backfires

Sycophancy does not make for good publicity. And Prasanna Patsani, a Biju Janata Dal MP, learnt this lesson the hard way. Mr Patsani doesn’t leave any opportunity to flatter party president and Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Recently, Mr Patsani — also known as “Chicken Baba” given his penchant for non-vegetarian food despite being clad in the saffron habit of a sage — during the launch of a news channel tried his best to justify Mr Patnaik’s expulsion of senior BJD leaders on alleged charges of corruption and anti-party activities. Since the charges are yet to be proved, the decisions raise questions on the CM’s fairplay.

“Media should behave in a positive manner as does our chief minister. He never criticises anybody… he keeps mum to contemplate on good things. But don’t forget that he always thinks and works positively. He scorns negativity. He does not censure the ill-doers in public, but punishes them,” he said, trying to justify Mr Patnaik’s expulsion of the BJD founder-members whom he perceived as threats to his own position. Mr Patsani is known to often make the audience laugh with bizarre utterances that bear no connection to the context of his addresses. But for once, he was trying to be serious and this failed to cut any ice not only with the audience but also left Mr Patnaik frowning. Seeing this, Mr Patsani was wise to cut his speech short as any further drama would have spelt trouble.

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Ajmal’s Payback

When perfume baron-turned-politician Badruddin Ajmal formed the All-India United Democratic Front in 2005, it was a setback for the Congress. However, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi was quick to capitalise on the pro-immigrant image of Mr Ajmal. In the 2006 Assam Assembly elections, Mr Gogoi coined a phrase “who is Badruddin?” to polarise voters with anti-foreigners (immigrant) sentiment in (favour of the) Congress.

Mr Gogoi’s questioning of the existence of Mr Ajmal was lauded all over, as anti-immigrant sentiment has always dominated the state. However, since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress, led by Mr Gogoi, has faced three consecutive defeats. The situation came to a stage where the Congress was routed in the elections of the Bodoland Territorial Council but the AIUDF succeeded in winning four out of the eight seats contested by it.

In between, the AIUDF has not only assumed the status of main Opposition in the state Assembly but also grabbed three Congress seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It was certainly a proud moment for the AIUDF. Mr Ajmal chose this occasion to settle his political scores with Mr Gogoi. So when the AIUDF bagged four seats in the third BTC, Mr Ajmal said, “Who is Tarun Gogoi?” Referring to the three consecutive defeats of the ruling Congress, Mr Ajmal said this phrase would become more relevant after the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam. Mr Ajmal has many sympathisers in the ruling Congress who are now saying Mr Gogoi was paid back in the same coin.