Anita Katyal | Amritsar Is 'Lucky' For BJP's Losers; Cong MPs Lobby For Kerala Tickets

Amritsar is known as a holy city but if events of the last decade are anything to go by, it is also being touted as a lucky city, especially for losing candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Every BJP candidate who contested the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat since 2014 faced a humiliating defeat but this did not deter the party leadership from rewarding them. Arun Jaitley lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Amritsar to Congress leader Amarinder Singh by a margin of a lakh votes and was yet given charge of the high-profile finance ministry. Diplomat-turned-politician Hardeep Puri was fielded from Amritsar in the 2019 Lok Sabha election but was defeated by his Congress rival Gurjit Aujla also by a massive margin. He went on to handle key portfolios like commerce, civil aviation, urban development and petroleum. The latest to join this gang is another diplomat-turned-politician Taranjit Singh Sandhu. He contested the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in 2024 on a BJP ticket but lost to the sitting Congress candidate Aujla. And now Mr Sandhu has taken over as Delhi’s new lieutenant governor. Clearly, losing the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat as a BJP candidate comes with many benefits. On the flip side, it suits the BJP to accommodate such candidates in the ministry as they lack a mass base, want to enjoy the trappings of power post-retirement and are, therefore, easy to handle.

When Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla constituted 64 Parliamentary Friendship Groups last month with 700 MPs from across the political spectrum, it was assumed the members would soon be jetting to the 60-odd countries identified for interactions with their legislators. But the parliamentarians, especially first time MPs, who have not been abroad, were in for a disappointment as they soon learned that there were no immediate plans to send them to the designated countries. These visits usually follow formal invitations from the Parliaments of the respective countries. Moreover, these visits do not take place in a vacuum but are centered around specific issues like trade negotiations or security concerns. Visits by these groups take place on a reciprocal basis — a visit by an Indian group will be followed by a visit by parliamentarians from that country. The group assigned to the particular country is expected to play host to the visitors. Several MPs are now complaining that they have been reduced to chaperones. They have also realised that these groups were constituted shortly before Lok Sabha took up the motion for the Speaker’s removal primarily to underline that the charge of partiality against Mr Birla was unfounded.

At a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party is locked in a fierce political battle with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress in West Bengal, the party’s state unit is dealing with serious and, some not so serious, inhouse problems. The food served to the visiting BJP leaders from the northern states has added to the woes of the local leaders. North Indian leaders on tour to the poll-bound state have a preference for home-cooked vegetarian food. These meals have to be cooked and delivered in tiffin carriers to the hotel where they are staying or they come and eat at home. But the visitors are put off by the “baas” or the smell in the homes of their hosts. All Bengali homes, according to heartland leaders, stink of fish. Local leaders tasked with hospitality are furious as the visitors come to their homes, eat at their table and invariably complain about the depraved habits of Bengalis, pointing to the consumption of meat and fish on puja days.

It appears that several Congress MPs from Kerala have started lobbying for tickets for the forthcoming Assembly polls. This scramble has been triggered by senior Congress leader and Rahul Gandhi confidant K.C. Venugopal’s recent statement that if the party wins the state polls, an MP and not necessarily an MLA could be picked as the next chief minister. This sent alarm bells ringing in the party’s state unit as a number of local leaders are in contention for this coveted post. Congress insiders explained that Kerala MPs are pushing for Assembly tickets not because they wish to shift to the state from the Lok Sabha but to kill any chances of Venugopal emerging as a chief ministerial candidate.

Rajya Sabha MP and legal luminary Abhishek Singhvi has been hosting an annual meal for media-persons on the Congress beat for the past several years. His last party was held two years ago a few days before his election for a Rajya Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh. Many guests were seen congratulating him as Mr Singhvi’s victory was assured since the Congress had the numbers to win the seat. However, the script went horribly wrong when several Congress MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate, leading to Mr Singhvi’s defeat. This time, Mr Singhvi did not take any chances. The date for his annual dinner was fixed for after the March 16 Rajya Sabha election. The forthcoming party will truly be a celebration as Mr Singhvi has been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Telangana.