Unlike the Left parties and the earlier avatar of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress leaders were not known to go in for mass mobilisation. The Congress Party’s methods of protest generally did not go beyond large public rallies, small corner meetings or an occasional march to Rajghat or the Rashtrapati Bhavan. However, after his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi appears to have acquired an appetite for street protests, sit-ins and picketing. This was witnessed when he staged a dharna outside the Prime Minister’s residence to demand Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation over the Neet exam paper leaks. And last week Rahul Gandhi was at his aggressive best when a march by Opposition MPs to press for the removal of the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar turned into a series of dharnas by the Congress leaders, ending in their forcible removal by the police. According to Congress insiders, Rahul Gandhi was so enthused about these programmes that he asked party general secretary K.C. Venugopal to issue instructions to all MPs that they must participate in the street protests and that explanations be sought from members who did not show up. It is said he also wanted Mr Venugopal to issue show cause notices to the MPs who did not have a valid reason for their absence.
There has been endless speculation in the Capital’s political circles about Union petroleum minister Hardeep Puri’s future ever since he was dropped from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s list of candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh. Rules allow him to continue as minister for six months after his term ends in November. But the question is: What next? Will Mr Puri be sidelined or, as the grapevine says, there is a possibility he could be given a gubernatorial posting. There are murmurs that Jharkhand governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar may be moved out as his daughter Shruti Gangwar has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. If not a governor’s post, will Mr Puri be accommodated in some other position or will he be involved in the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections even though he lost the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in 2019? It was generally believed that Mr Puri was on a safe wicket, since he remained untouched even after his controversial links with Jeffrey Epstein surfaced earlier this year. It was also expected that Mr Puri would be re-nominated ahead of Punjab Assembly polls. But clearly, everyone’s been proved wrong.
Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat was recently in the eye of a storm over the launch of an independent Dhanyavad Evam Jansamvad Yatra ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections. Mr Rawat was pulled up by Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal and told that individual programmes will not be tolerated and that poll campaigns must be undertaken collectively under the party’s banner. Mr Rawat has since agreed not to go ahead with any solo programmes but Congress insiders maintain, the former chief minister is unlikely to give in easily and can be expected fight for his political space. The Congress could then find itself in a tight spot if it sidelines Rawat who will resist any such attempt and thwart the party’s plans to promote fresh leadership in the poll-bound hill state. There is all-round agreement that Mr Rawat may no longer be in his prime and lacks the wherewithal to deliver a victory for the Congress but his capacity to damage the party cannot be underestimated. So the big question is: How do you solve a problem like Mr Rawat?
Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni, who worked closely with Sonia Gandhi, may no longer be politically active these days but state leaders she interacted with as party general secretary continue to line up at her new Delhi residence. As a former MP from Punjab, Ms Soni retains links with state leaders who turn to her regularly, even amid the recent internal factional battle which culminated in the appointment of former national hockey captain Pargat Singh as the party’s state unit chief. The stream of visitors who called on her recently include Singh, his predecessor Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Charanjit Singh Channi who spearheaded a campaign against Warring. Ms Soni has been house-bound as she recently dislocated her shoulder, a development which kept her away from the last meeting of the party’s working committee.
With Uttar Pradesh heading for Assembly polls next year, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s moves are under constant scrutiny. Lately, doubts have arisen in some quarters that he is not serious in taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the forthcoming election. For instance, he has not displayed the same enthusiasm on the INDIA bloc’s demand for the removal of the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar though he did come for the joint meeting and was seen marching along with other opposition MPs in Delhi last week. But back in his home state, his party’s response to the Special Intensive Revision of voters’ rolls and the demand for CEC’s resignation has not been particularly aggressive. Then again, Yadav’s recent decision to field Gujarat-based Reliance executive Dhanraj Nathwani as the party’s Rajya Sabha candidate from Uttar Pradesh further baffled political observers, especially after Nathwani praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a post on X.
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