Mayawati dumps Congress, won't ally with losers in UP
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has rejected the Congress' repeated feelers to consider an alliance for the UP Assembly polls in 2017. This is a body blow to the Congress, which had been wooing the BSP supreme leader up till now.
Mayawati rebuffed the Congress by not even giving them second preference votes during the recent Rajya Sabha elections, and now it's been hammered home with the defection of Congress Rampur MLA Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, who was expelled for voting for the BSP. He had gone on to say, "Mayawati was the only hope for the Muslims in UP. The Congress has simply failed to get its act together."
Mayawati's support in the Uttarakhand Assembly during the trust vote had given a ray of hope to the beleaguered Congress, but those hopes now have been firmly dashed.
A leader who has been privy to all this wooing says, "We tried our best. But, it was a kabhi haan, kabhi na." The negotiations were being handled by a senior leader, who is the only one in the Congress who has an excellent rapport with BSP's "Iron Lady". The senior leader had sweetened the equation by sending her baskets of exotic fruit which, apparently, she's very fond of.
Unfortunately, the fruits weren't sweet enough.
Mayawati also has nearly finalised all her candidates for the upcoming UP polls, a top source close to her, has told me. Out of the final list, she's decided to field nearly a 100 Muslim candidates, hence the defection of three Muslims from Congress.
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| Senior Congress leaders are perplexed. Someone is clearly taking suicidal decisions. (PTI) |
Mayawati is also looking to woo Brahmins.
This comes as a huge contrast to the witless behaviour of the Congress, which is at present nowhere close to finalising a strategy for the UP polls, despite the gee whiz presence of ace strategist Prashant Kishor.
Mayawati's close aide told me, "Behenji is very calm about these things. She has assessed the Congress on the UP bhoomi and has decided that since both parties are targeting the same vote bank - Muslims and Brahmins - the Congress would bring nothing to the table. Besides, the Congress seems to be in a coma in UP. It's not even a functional political party."
Reportedly, Mayawati is convinced that while she has the ability to transfer the votes of her loyal base, the same will not happen with the parties she will ally with.
She is raring to go. For the first time ever, the BSP has even employed a survey agency to do a poll for the party. The results have been reassuring.
As of now, Mayawati is the front runner to sweep UP. She sees no reason to share her spoils with the Congress, which merely wants to piggyback on her, and become a player in UP again.
If the BJP's harping on a "Congress-mukt Bharat," Mayawati will be only too happy with a "Congress-mukt UP". Her close aide tells me, "Behenji told the Congress categorically, please tell me where your party exists, apart from the Amethi and Rae Bareilly belt. It's all very well to have good strategists, but the Gandhis seem to be in a funk."
The funk is what a sensible strategist like Kishor has been trying to debug by fielding a Gandhi face to lead the campaign and be the CM face. While it was never going to be Rahul Gandhi, Kishor still hopes Priyanka Gandhi will give it a shot. But the inability to commit seems to be dogging the Gandhi family.
And with mini rebellions breaking out within the party across the states, it is clear that members are sending a message that it's not happy with this clueless leadership.
The mere appointment and the subsequent revoking of Kamal Nath as helming Punjab campaign for Congress, is a spectacular self goal. The damage has been done. It's given fresh fodder to Arvind Kejriwal and the Akalis and brought back the spectre of 1984 riots to loom over Punjab elections.
Senior Congress leaders are perplexed. Someone is clearly taking suicidal decisions. Interestingly, the appointment of Kamal Nath and Ghulam Nabi Azad was a signal to the old guards to quit their rebellion and non-cooperation with Rahul Gandhi. The signal seems to have backfired. The rebellion is only gaining heat as leaders are simply fed up of Rahul's inept and bumbling leadership.
"How is appointing Azad, a Kashmiri, as in charge of the party in UP going to help us?" asks a young leader, who was a minister in the UPA government. Young Congress workers from UP are wondering why the party is not giving them a chance when it is so clueless.
Interestingly, while former Delhi CM, octogenarian Sheila Dikshit was being talked about as a future face for UP, her son and former Congress MP from Delhi, Sandeep Dikshit, is believed to be on the hunt for greener pastures. Oddly enough the Gandhis seems unaware of all this.
The rebellions and flip-flops are being keenly watched by leaders in other parties. Mayawati's final "no" came after BS Hooda's pen rebellion in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections came to light.
As of now, in UP, apart from the Congress, all the other contenders have decided their candidates and firmed a strategy for the polls. Mayawati is banking on law and order, a strong plus point during her administration. She is even trying to make amends by saying, if voted to power; there will be no more statues.
Mayawati seems to have realised that power in India's most significant state is itself monumental.