Personal interests
There are no permanent friends or enemies in politics — only permanent interests. This truism is evident in the lead up to the high-stakes civic elections in Maharashtra scheduled for January 15, where political and ideological boundaries are being crossed to secure power at the local level. The estranged Thackeray cousins, Uddhav and Raj, have joined hands in Mumbai, while the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party have bridged the Treasury-Opposition divide to align in Pune. Although these tie-ups are officially being justified as being in the interest of grassroots development, the real aim is widely seen as control over cash-rich municipal corporations. Other than the Thackerays and the Pawars, in nearly a dozen of the 29 corporations going to the polls, parties are pitted against their own state-level allies. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which emerged as the dominant force after the last assembly elections, has pursued the most aggressive strategy. It has embarked on a virtual poaching spree, inducting leaders and workers from both allies and rivals to consolidate its position in the civic bodies. But the move appears to be backfiring. Party workers have revolted, accusing the leadership of favouring turncoats over loyal cadres. Insiders warn that this growing resentment could hurt the party in the long run.
A man for all seasons
The Congress Working Committee leader, Shashi Tharoor, often called a universal citizen, has fans everywhere, cutting across party lines. A four-term member of Parliament representing the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, Tharoor’s eulogising Prime Minister Narendra Modi kept him in the news for most of 2025. The BJP leadership laps up Tharoor’s unabashed magnanimity and the Congress appears to have learnt to live with it. This year began with the 69-year-old Tharoor receiving the Malayali of the Year award instituted by a leading news channel from the hands of none other than the chief minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan. The CM addressed Tharoor as a personality who spread the state’s voice and culture on the world stage. He also added that Tharoor has been working relentlessly for the development of the state beyond the realm of politics. Tharoor says he was “bowled over” by the words of Vijayan. When Vijayan was eulogising Tharoor, the television cameras zoomed to show him with a surprise grin. In fact, Tharoor later took to his social media account claiming that such good words coming from Vijayan just ahead of the legislative assembly elections in less than three months came as a surprise.
Electric debate
Taking a cue from the PM’s Chai Pe Charcha, the Odisha Congress last week came up with a similar idea of Chai Pe Bijli Charcha — a discussion on the issue of electricity and power companies demanding additional security deposits. The senior Congress leader and former Union minister, Srikant Jena, came up with this idea and personally invited people from all walks of life to attend the ‘ charcha ’. This was organised just 50 metres away from the state secretariat (Lok Seva Bhawan). The venue was chosen carefully so that the outcome of the charcha reaches the administration. Jena maintained that such meetings would be organised across the state to mobilise public opinion not to pay the additional security deposits demanded by the power companies. The Opposition claimed that although the state government had a 49% stake in the TP Central Odisha Distribution Limited, it has remained silent on the issue and is not putting pressure on the power company to withdraw the unjust demand.
People’s
power
The Congress in Assam is trying to hardsell the upcoming state elections as one to be fought between the “people of Assam and the ruler” while alluding to the Assam CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma. The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president, Gaurav Gogoi, while addressing a party programme in Dibrugarh, said: “This election will be between the people of Assam and the Raja.” He added, “This ruler-like government has given some schemes to the subjects. Distributing public money through schemes is the duty of every government. But this time we are seeing that conditions are being attached to these schemes. If you want to receive benefits, you cannot belong to another party, cannot attend another party’s meeting, cannot question or criticise us. If you do so, your benefits will be cut. This is their behaviour, this is their arrogance.”
In response, Sarma said the Opposition Congress has no plank to fight the upcoming elections on and was sure of the National Democratic Alliance retaining the state while recalling the reverses the party suffered in Bihar and before that in Delhi, Maharashtra and Haryana. Now it is over to the people.
