Defeat often carries with it the burden of blocked beliefs, a clear view of which was seen in the Congress Working Committee meeting convened in New Delhi, where the vocal silence prevailed over the speakers. The meeting lasted some five hours but only five people came forward in vocal support of the Gandhi family. Whereas some 52 Congress leaders were present in the meeting. Sonia Gandhi offered her resignation, declaring that ‘the Gandhi family can sacrifice anything, they can go to any extent to protect the Congress’. Often there used to be a wide impact in the meeting, slogans of ‘No-No’, then ‘Sonia Gandhi Zindabad’ were used in chorus. But this time nothing of the sort happened. Only five leaders stood in support of Sonia. After this, it was the turn of Rahul Gandhi. KC Venugopal raised slogans in favor of Rahul, ‘Rahul Lao, Desh Bachao’. Same was the case with Priyanka Gandhi, she had to pay the price for her ‘flop show’ in UP. Last time when she had spoken at the CWC meeting, she spoke amid thunderous applause, this time there was an uneasy silence everywhere. The five people who took the lead in Rahul’s favour, after Rahul spoke, were Bhupesh Baghel, Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. In this meeting, only three leaders of the disgruntled G-23 faction of Congress attended – Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik. Before coming to the meeting, Kamal Nath talked to Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ghulam Nabi talked to Sonia and said that ‘I have never wanted your resignation.’ When Ghulam Nabi Azad got a chance to speak, he spoke in his own style. When he finished speaking, many senior Congress leaders came to him, praised him and said, ‘You spoke very well.’ Obviously, the Gandhi family was feeling very uncomfortable in this whole meeting.

On the one hand, the internal strife in the Congress is not stopping, on the other the Gandhi family which is not deterring from its habits. As a senior party leader AK Antony had kept all his hopes on the only Rajya Sabha from Kerala. But the name running in his place in this seat is that of Congress’ Telangana in-charge Krishnan Srinivasan, who is also on the board of directors of several companies owned by Robert Vadra. Ever since the matter of Rajya Sabha candidature has come to the fore, there has been a ruckus in the Congress unit of Kerala and AK Antony has started talking about retiring from politics. The term of the Rajya Sabha of Anand Sharma, a prominent leader of Congress’s G-23, is about to end. Anand Sharma has got used to being in the Rajya Sabha for a long time. So, this time he thought it was better to reach the upper house with the support of the Aam Aadmi Party from Punjab rather than making rounds of the Gandhi family. For this, he has also been able to chat with AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. But given Kejriwal’s political style, there is little hope that he will favour Anand Sharma as his party has not brought any heavyweight to the Rajya Sabha so far. Anand Sharma’s Rajya Sabha term is ending on April 2, now he has again started saying that ‘I am a worker of Congress’.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has won this time from the Karhal seat of Mainpuri, but he wants to leave his assembly seat and retain his MP status. Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav had given all his strength to make Akhilesh win from Karhal, now Shivpal wants that from this left to be vacated by Akhilesh, he will field his son Aditya Singh from Karhal in this by-election. But it seems there is something else going on in Akhilesh’s mind. He hastily declared his uncle as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, so that he could not put any pressure on Akhilesh on this issue. Akhilesh has explained to his uncle that ‘he has some big plan regarding Aditya, he wants to field Aditya on the symbol of SP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.’ As far as Karhal seat is concerned, former three-time MLA from this seat Sobran Singh is also once again staking his claim on this seat. But something else is going on in Akhilesh’s mind. He wants to send Swami Prasad Maurya, a prominent leader of backward classes from Karhal, to Lucknow after winning the by-election. Swami Prasad Maurya, who has switched from BJP to SP, lost the election from Fazil Nagar. Akhilesh actually wants to strengthen his non-Yadav backward chemistry. Akhilesh got a big advantage of alliance with smaller parties in this election, due to this alliance, there has been a huge jump in the vote percentage of SP. In the 2017 Assembly elections, where the total vote share of the SP was only 21.08 percent, it has increased to 32.06 percent in the 2022 UP elections. That is, where Akhilesh’s vote share has increased by one and a half times, the seats in his assembly have increased by two and a half times. Akhilesh wants to maintain this boom in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well.

The queue of those seeking Rajya Sabha from Akhilesh Yadav gets longer. Jayant Chaudhary’s name has also been added to this list. On the one hand, the BJP continues to woo Jayant and wants him to join the BJP so that the party’s path can be eased in western Uttar Pradesh in 2024. This time Jayant’s party RLD has won 8 seats. Usually 38 votes are required for a Rajya Sabha seat, that is why Jayant is now looking towards Akhilesh for 30 votes. But Akhilesh’s dilemma is that there is a long queue of people seeking Rajya Sabha seat from him. Like Krishna Patel of Apna Dal Kameravadi is also asking for Rajya Sabha from him. Akhilesh has also made up his mind that ‘he will not give Rajya Sabha to any Yadav or Muslim on behalf of SP’. In fact, Akhilesh wants to send a message to the backward caste voters of the state before the election of 2024 that SP is not only a party of Yadavs and Muslims. On the other hand, Sanjay Singh Chauhan of the Janwadi Party Socialist has his eyes fixed on the Rajya Sabha. One pomegranate and a hundred sick. What does Akhilesh do in such condition?

To review the crushing defeat of the Congress in 5 states, the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi has constituted a committee. The responsibility of investigating the defeat has also been entrusted to the same leaders, on whom the party cadre has been raising fingers earlier. For example, most of the Congress leaders of Uttarakhand were blaming the in-charge Devendra Yadav, Avinash Pandey and co-in-charge Deepika Pandey for the crushing defeat of the Congress in the state. Now interestingly, in the committee formed by Sonia Gandhi to review the defeat, Ajay Maken along with Avinash Pandey has also been included. In the review meeting of Congress MPs from Punjab that was held to review the defeat of Punjab, just before the CWC meeting, Congress MPs openly said that ‘Ghar ko ag laggi ghar ke chirag se’. This means that to whom the party high command entrusted the responsibility of distributing tickets and of the screening committee, the tickets were sold from there only. Leaders like Mukul Wasnik had openly taken a dig at Chandan Yadav and said, “Loot has taken place in the name of Screening Committee. Congress tickets have been sold, then how will the result come?” Now questions are being raised that who is in Rahul’s team who is taking forward leaders like Avinash Pandey and Chandan Yadav. The needle of suspicion has wandered around and fixed on Alankar Sawai.

After the election results of UP came out, Priyanka Gandhi held a review meeting with the Congress leaders of the state. Even before the meeting, Priyanka got indications that in this meeting many leaders may point fingers at her for the defeat of Congress in UP, they may also raise the question that Congress money has been misused in this election. The narrative of ‘Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon’ has reached the public in a wrong way etc-etc. So, realizing the gravity of the situation, many prominent leaders of the state were called from Priyanka’s office and Priyanka herself spoke to those leaders and presented her clarification. After this, when the meeting started, senior UP Congress leader Pramod Tiwari started his speech by praising Priyanka and said, “You fought very well. Congress’s voice has been raised in the entire state.” The majority of the leaders were not agreeing with Tiwari’s opinion, saying that ‘what could be worse for the Congress than this? The party’s vote share fell from 6 to 2.23 per cent in UP, the seats have come down to 2.’ For Priyanka too, the situation was getting uncomfortable in the meeting, but somehow she managed the matter.

The Sangh’s Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabole is ready to return to Nagpur after completing his mission UP. His office is also shifting from Lucknow to Nagpur. Sources reveal that Hosabole, the architect of BJP’s massive victory in UP, can be handed over the command of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from now on. Anyway, the Sangh and BJP leadership want to give a ‘free-hand’ to Yogi this time in UP.

In this changing weather, it seems the yellow Sun light has also changed to saffron. When the ballot box opened on the March 10, the hopes of many parties were also dashed. Even though the BJP stunned its opponents with its trot but many questions still remain unanswered. As a Congress leader says, “Narendra Modi’s victory is friable from within, because before the latest election results of five states, the BJP already had 399 seats out of total 690 seats. Now after the results, it is left with 356 seats i.e. 43 seats have been reduced.” But it should also be asked as to what happened to the morale of the Congress in Punjab where it handed over the victory to AAP. How did the call of victory in Uttarakhand turn into an outcry of defeat? Why did the public reject Priyanka’s ‘ladki hoon lad sakti hoon’ chant in UP? Therefore, today there is a need for introspection not by the BJP but by the Congress, whose many big leaders are still ready to break away. With the opposition flag-waving in four of these five states, the BJP plans to merge at least three parties into its Saffron fold by the end of this year. Mayawati is said to be ready for this, who, in this election transferred 70 to 80 percent of her core vote bank directly to the BJP. Her eyes are on an honorable farewell from politics. Her eyes are on the President post but if she does not get it, she may agree on the post of Vice President. This way she will get rid of all the cases and will be able to live a peaceful constitutional life. If this happens, she may be ready to merge her party BSP with BJP. More or less the same is the case with Nitish Kumar. His first attempt was to become the face of the Opposition unit at the Centre. He again contacted PK in this regard, explored the possibilities for himself, but if the plan does not materialise, then he too may easily surrender to the saffron. If he is made the President or Vice President, he may be ready to merge his party JDU with the BJP as JDU’s influence is now limited to Bihar only.

What will happen to Mukesh Sahni, who repeatedly cursed the BJP? Will BJP give him a dressing down? Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party i.e. VIP is a popular party among the Mallahs-Nishads of Bihar which is currently a part of NDA in Bihar. But despite this, Sahni violated the accepted conventions of NDA and fielded 53 candidates from his party in this UP election. Sahni, who took the oath of ousting the BJP from power in UP, forgot this time that he had tasted power in Bihar only because of the BJP. He was brought to the Legislative Council of Bihar by the BJP and perhaps he also forgot that the membership of his Legislative Council is also expiring in this coming July. The power of making him MLC again is also in the hands of BJP. It should be noted that Sahni’s VIP party had 4 MLAs in Bihar, out of which one Musafir Paswan passed away. There are 3 left who can join BJP anytime, because it was the BJP who made them contest the election with the symbol of VIP. Then what will Mukesh Sahni do? To harbour enmity for someone who gives you shelter?

As per informed sources, there may be a changes in BJP leadership before the elections in Himachal Pradesh. The high command can play bets on JP Nadda in HP and Dharmendra Pradhan’s name is in discussion for BJP President in place of Nadda. But if Nadda refuses, another face can get a chance in Himachal. According to sources, BJP can play bets on Anurag Thakur. BL Santosh may also be changed from the post of General Secretary of BJP Organization and Nagendra Nath Tripathi may replace Santosh. At present, Tripathi is handling the responsibility of General secretary organization in Bihar and Jharkhand. On the other hand, this matter is also being considered in the high command as to how much free hand should be given to Yogi in UP and how can there be better coordination between Yogi and Sunil Bansal? Meanwhile, there are talks of changing Swatantra Dev Singh as well.