Banking on providence & ‘shudh maas’

When election strategist Prashant Kishor sat in on a meeting of Uttar Pradesh Congress members in Lucknow recently, he probably did not know what he had bargained for when he accepted Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s offer to help craft a poll strategy for the grand old party in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. The meeting was called to seek the views of Congress members on the party’s revival in the electorally-crucial Hindi heartland state. But those who participated in the half-day interactive session had their grievances. While many of them complained about how loyal workers were being neglected, there were others who obviously forgot that the Congress has not been in power in the state for over three decades. They went on to present a long wishlist to the party leadership, which included the provision of roads, schools, hospitals and petrol pumps in their districts till they were reminded that there was no point in making these demands as the Congress is not in power either in the state or at the Centre.

A delegate from Meerut walked away with the best prize when he made a passionate plea that the Congress should ensure the availability of “pure, shudh maas (meat)” to win the support of the Muslim community. Yet another local leader made a few points but refused to proceed further, stating that he would place all his proposals only before Mr Gandhi and urged Congress general secretary Madhusudan Mistry to organise a meeting with the party vice-president. There were many who just slept through the proceedings.

Congress cadres are not known to be hard workers. They either depend on the party leadership — Sonia and Rahul Gandhi — to work the magic for them or they wait for their opponents to falter before they step in to take advantage of the situation. But Arun Yadav, president of the Madhya Pradesh Congress unit, has his own ideas on how the party should take on the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. When senior state leaders met recently to brainstorm about how the Congress can stage a comeback in Madhya Pradesh, Mr Yadav maintained that they should do nothing till the Ujjain kumbh mela concludes by May-end. According to the Madhya Pradesh Congress chief, it has been divined that the Chouhan government is in for a rough time after the kumbh mela. Either the government will self-destruct or, Mr Chouhan could well be replaced, Mr Yadav explained, adding that either way, the Congress stood to gain.

While his colleagues were suitably silenced with this explanation, BJP circles admit there may be some merit in Mr Yadav’s argument. Party insiders say that Mr Chouhan finds himself in a spot after Bharatiya Janata Party organising secretary in the state, Arvind Menon, who plays a role in coordinating between the organisation and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was abruptly replaced by Suhas Bhagat recently.

Mr Chouhan is not happy with this new arrangement as Mr Menon was his personal choice and his supporters believe this change is a warning signal to the chief minister. Now it is to be seen if Mr Yadav’s prediction will come true.

It is an accepted fact that most ministers in the Modi government do not take kindly to criticism. But minister for human resources development Smriti Irani easily tops this list along with minister of state for power, coal, new and renewable energy Piyush Goyal. The two ministers are quick to respond to every and any adverse media report about their respective ministries and are known to have the phone numbers of leading media owners and editors on speed-dial.

A television reporter, who covers the HRD ministry, found himself at the receiving end recently when he had the temerity to challenge Ms Irani’s contention on the unfolding drama at the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar. After their verbal spat, the minister promptly went up to the reporter to ask the name of the organisation he represented. As soon as she was informed about the television channel, Ms Irani lost no time in calling up the owner-editors to complain about the reporter. Fortunately for the journalist, his bosses were not too harsh on him but it was not for want of trying by the tough-talking Ms Irani.

Ever since Keshav Prasad Maurya was named the new president of the BJP’s unit in Uttar Pradesh, there has been endless speculation as to how and why he was picked for this all-important job in the poll-bound state. The proverbial dark horse who beat several other senior leaders to emerge the winner, Mr Maurya has the dubious distinction of having a number of criminal cases against him. On the other hand, he has been a loyal RSS worker and was actively involved in the Ram temple movement and the campaign against cow slaughter. If BJP grapevine is to believed, Mr Maurya was favoured over the others as he was the protege of the late Ashok Singhal, who headed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for decades and was the face of the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign. It is being said that Singhal had anointed Mr Maurya as his heir-apparent and it was his dying wish that his shishya should be suitably rewarded.

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist