Anita Katyal | Atishi, Sisodia may change their seats; EAM plays squash & breathes cricket
Now that the Jharkhand and Maharashtra Assembly polls are over, the next electoral battleground is all set to shift to Delhi. The main contenders, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party along with the Congress, have already got down to work as they are busy poaching leaders from each other’s ranks. The AAP leadership is worried as it believes that, after its senior minister Kailash Gahlot quit to join the BJP, several others could jump ship in the coming days. This is partially because several three-time legislators who are on shaky ground are expected to be benched. Others could leave because they believe they will face a tough challenge in the coming election as AAP’s credibility has eroded considerably in recent months. With AAP’s internal surveys also showing that it has a fight on its hands, a juggling of constituencies is not ruled out. There is a possibility that Delhi chief minister Atishi and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia could be moved from their present constituencies as they may not be able to hold on to them. AAP strategists are also not averse to playing the caste card despite the party’s public focus on development, having recently inducted a Jat (Sumesh Shokeen), a dalit (Veer Dhingan) and a Muslim (Mateen Ahmed), all from the Congress.
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External affairs minister S. Jaishankar expectedly keeps a hectic schedule as he travels across the globe meeting top world leaders. Back home, his engagements include interacting with visiting dignitaries and addressing seminars and participating in innumerable media conclaves where he expounds on various facets of India’s current foreign policy and strategic affairs. Given his area of expertise, it was, therefore, unusual to read that Mr Jaishankar will be launching cricketing legend Mohinder Amarnath’s book, Fearless: A Memoir, in Delhi later this week. But people who know him maintain that Mr Jaishankar is a sports enthusiast, an avid squash player and despite being constantly on the move, manages to squeeze in a game whenever he gets a chance. He is an ardent cricket fan and recently revealed that he admires Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, M.S. Dhoni and England’s James Anderson, citing different reasons for picking these players for his list of favourites.
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Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami goes out of his way to emulate his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath’s style of functioning but nothing seems to work for him as his popularity ratings show little signs of improvement. Keen to see a change of leadership, the people in the hill state are hoping Uttarakhand will see a repeat of the Haryana experiment which involved dropping its two-time chief minister M.L. Khattar before the elections and replacing him with Nayab Singh Saini. Mr Dhami finds himself in the firing line as people complain that he does not have a grip on governance and that the state is being run by bureaucrats while elected representatives are being ignored. Besides fighting this public perception, Mr Dhami also has to be mindful of ambitious young leaders in the party and four former chief ministers — Tirath Singh Rawat, Trivendra Singh Rawat, Ramesh Pokhriyal and B.C. Khanduri — who are waiting for an opportunity to destabilise his government.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party’s plans of expanding its footprint in Punjab have taken a hit as its state unit is in constant turmoil because of an ongoing tug-a-war between the BJP’s older members, who consider themselves party loyalists, and the lateral entrants inducted more recently. Party old timers have not taken kindly to the elevation of these newcomers to important organisational posts or being prioritised for tickets. It was this tension which eventually propelled BJP state chief Sunil Jakhar, a former Congress leader, to put in his papers. This battle has intensified further as there is a buzz in the BJP’s Punjab unit that Rana Gurmit Sodhi, another former Congress leader also known for his proximity to former chief minister Amarinder Singh, is being considered for this post. BJP members are insisting that the next state president must be from their ranks and that this all-important post should not go to another “outsider” like Mr Jakhar.
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Meanwhile, in neighbouring Haryana, the Congress finds itself in a fix over the appointment of a new leader of Opposition in the Assembly. It has been over a month since the election results were declared but the party is still dithering over this issue. Matters have become complicated as former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda wants to be back in the post he held in the last assembly even though the Congress registered a shocking defeat under his leadership. The Congress high command does not want to send out the message that there is no accountability in the party but it fears there could be a backlash by Mr Hooda and his supporters, particularly the Jat community, if the senior leader is bypassed. As it is, the Congress has lost the support of the dalits and backward classes to the BJP. A wrong move could end up further eroding its support base.
