Ashok Gehlot's stellar leadership wins trust of Congress top brass

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• Equations change dramatically in politics in no time. The chief minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, was treated with suspicion by the Congress leadership owing to his reluctance to accept instructions. He even stopped taking phone calls from the general-secretary, Ajay Maken, for a few days and speculation about Sachin Pilot replacing him as CM gathered steam. But Gehlot’s fortune changed after the successful Udaipur Chintan Shivir and his stellar leadership during the protests against the Enforcement Directorate grilling Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. Gehlot not only stayed put in Delhi but he also led the protests and played a key role in planning the party’s response. While there are few leaders of his stature and seniority in the party, his readiness to demonstrate an aggressive posture pleased the rank and file, apart from the family loyalists. While senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma have been completely sidelined, even those who are in leadership roles, such as Kamal Nath and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, chose to stay aloof. There were more protesters in Delhi from Rajasthan than Haryana. Sources said that even veterans like P Chidambaram got deeply involved, briefing key functionaries on legal points, communication strategy and political responses actively. KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel, Randeep Surjewala, Shaktisinh Gohil, Jairam Ramesh and Ajay Maken also emerged as key players during this crisis. The future leadership structure is bound to revolve around these individuals.

Spring a surprise

• Recent meetings between Opposition parties and the Janata Dal (Secular) have given rise to talks about the former prime minister, HD Deve Gowda, being their candidate for the presidential race. The 89-yearold leader is perhaps one of the best candidates for rallying a united Opposition behind him. But his son and former CM, HD Kumaraswamy, has clarified that his father is not keen on the race and would instead concentrate on building the party ahead of next year’s state assembly polls. But political pundits in Karnataka are not ready to rule out the possibility of Deve Gowda being the surprise candidate, just as he when he became PM over two decades ago.

Strong image

• The right-wing ecosystem recently went all out to slam the Bharatiya Janata Party for suspending its spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, owing to pressure from Gulf countries. The anger was so intense that hashtag #ShameOnBJP was trending on Twitter. The same ecosystem then turned to shower praise on the Uttar Pradesh CM, Yogi Adityanath, for his government’s crackdown on those who protested against the derogatory remarks on Prophet Mohammed by Sharma. The ecosystem, though, refrained from a direct attack against the PM. Many in the BJP felt that these trends reflected the political mood. Adityanath has succeeded in projecting himself as a hardline Hindutva leader. Many in the party had expected Adityanath to go for an image makeover as a good administrator in his second stint. However, it seems like bulldozers will remain in business.

Read between the lines

• The BJP poll juggernaut in Assam registered another facile win in the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council early this month, winning all 26 seats. It was a disappointing outing for the Opposition yet again — the Congress finished second in eight seats behind the All Party Hills Leaders Conference, which came second in ten seats. The Aam Aadmi Party was second in one seat. But the reaction of the Assam CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma, may come as a relief to the losers. He exhorted his BJP colleagues not to get complacent because Congress was down but not out. It will still be our rival in the upcoming elections, Sarma said, without referring to the 2024 general or the 2026 assembly elections. Sarma also seemed to have found a winner in Agnipath, the new recruitment scheme for the armed forces that the rattled BJP is going all out to justify after the widespread protest and violence it has triggered in the country. He said the trained Agniveers will be given jobs during recruitment by the state police. Sarma, as always, political observers pointed out, knows how to turn a situation, no matter how critical, in his favour.

Hot topic

• Khaki shorts are the latest topic of discussion in Karnataka after the Congress leader, PC Siddaramaiah, backed the party’s students’ union members who burnt shorts made famous by the sangh cadres. A sworn enemy of the sangh parivar and its brand of politics, the dyed-inthe-wool socialist in Siddaramaiah lauded the party’s student wing. Now the BJP MLC, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, has filed a case against Siddaramaiah for allegedly describing him as an “untouchable”.

Footnote

• The former principal accountant general and Biju Janata Dal’s Rajya Sabha member, Amar Patnaik, wants the Board of Control for Cricket in India to abolish the system of issuing complimentary passes. Apparently he was flooded with requests for passes for the India-South Africa match at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on June 12. Patnaik argued that if the CM, Naveen Patnaik, could buy a ticket, why was the Odisha Cricket Association distributing passes? OCA is facing criticism over reports that it distributed over 20,000 passes and sold only 17,000 tickets.