Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Hindi.

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’.

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.