Ramlila Model For UP Elections; Mamata Warms Up To The Left

Pleased with the arrangements made for last week’s INDIA bloc rally at the Ramlila Maidan, a special review meeting was held later by the Congress where it was decided to adopt the same system for the upcoming state elections. A special QR code of all the rallies which are to be addressed by the party’s top leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be distributed to all workers who will have to scan the code to register their presence. Instructions are to be issued that party workers will have to turn up for the meetings in their respective areas and that no excuses will be entertained. State leaders will be expected to prepare a list of habitual offenders and seek their explanation for their absence. In addition, a roster is to be drawn up of local leaders who will be given charge of specific areas in the poll-bound states both in the run-up to the election and during polling. A senior leader will be attached to each local leader to supervise the arrangements. Those entrusted with these responsibilities will also be expected to conduct a review after a rally or polling to find out how many workers turned up, the hours they clocked and the tasks undertaken by them.

Former West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress head Mamata Banerjee’s antipathy towards the Left parties, her old political rivals, is well-known. She led a tenacious battle to oust the well-entrenched Left Front government and has since maintained her political distance from the Communists. However, Mamata Banerjee appears to have softened towards her old opponents after the change in West Bengal’s political landscape following her party’s defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last assembly election. This was evident at last week’s rally organised by the INDIA bloc parties at Delhi’s Ramlila Grounds on “vote chori. The camaraderie between the Trinamul Congress chief and CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby did not go unnoticed by political observers. Seated together in the open vehicle in which the leaders were driven to the rally grounds, Mamata Banerjee and Mr Baby were seen chatting amiably with each other. Later, in her speech, Mamata Banerjee acknowledged the Left leaders along with other INDIA bloc parties in her opening remarks. According to the political grapevine, a chastened Mamata Banerjee is no longer averse to combining forces with the Left parties and the Congress to fight the BJP.

The long-awaited memoirs of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, titled Belonging: A Journey of Love, is all set for release on November 10. An exhaustive media and publicity plan has been drawn by the publishers, HarperCollins, to promote the book which is expected to be a blockbuster. But it is Sonia Gandhi and her children, Rahul and Priyanka, who are taking a final call on the execution of the plan. It is learnt that they are deciding on key details like where the book extracts are to be published and who will get the first interview with Sonia Gandhi. The pre-publicity began last month with Sonia Gandhi sharing a video on her first Instagram account in which she is seen unveiling the first copy of the book at her residence. Subsequently, there have been little teasers about how she met Rajiv Gandhi at Oxford and what attracted her to him. She also remarked at another point that there is bound to be a “tamasha” when the book is released but clearly, she is prepared for it. There is no doubt that the Bharatiya Janata Party and other Sonia-baiters will be combing through the book for anything they can use to launch an attack against her.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent phone call to veteran Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, during which he remarked that Supriya Sule and he would manage the country, has led to considerable speculation in political circles. While several interpretations of this conversation are on offer, the Congress and other INDIA bloc parties are wondering if Sharad Pawar is planning to walk out of the opposition alliance though his daughter Supriya Sule has been an active participant in its recently-concluded campaign on “vote chori”. That Mr Modi and Mr Pawar have cordial relations is no secret. It is also an acknowledged fact that Mr Pawar can prove to be unpredictable as he has ditched Congress in the past. The Pawar camp is keeping everyone guessing about his future plans. One explanation is that Mr Pawar prefers a merger with the Congress to secure Ms Sule’s political future but his party MLAs would rather merge with the NCP faction led by Sunetra Pawar which will give them a chance to join the Maharashtra government. It is also being suggested that senior NCP leaders who are unhappy with the manner in which Sunetra Pawar’s son Parth Pawar is running the party could rejoin the Sharad Pawar faction.