Raj, Maha may face trouble
Sachin Pilot likely to flex muscles against Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan
Barely 15 months ago, when the Congress wrested states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh from the BJP, the Grand Old Party was seen to be on a comeback trail in the Hindi heartland. But with the fall of the MP government on Friday, all eyes are now on Rajasthan and Maharashtra, where the party has formed a coalition government with NCP and one-time ideological rival Shiv Sena.
The only exceptions are Chhattisgarh where the Congress has a full majority, and Jharkhand, where the JMM-Congress alliance has got a majority.
In fact, Rajasthan, where a plot similar to Madhya Pradesh is being played out in the rivalry between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy and PCC chief Sachin Pilot could be the next hunting ground for the BJP.
Mr Pilot’s muted reaction to Jyotiraditya Scindia jumping ship, sources said, indicated that he was also ready to flex his muscles to get what he thought was due.
In the latest development, Mr Pilot opposed the chief minister over sending diamond merchant Rajiv Arora to the Rajya Sabha. Mr Arora was seen to be close to Mr Gehlot. Mr Pilot has been critical on many issues, including the deaths of children in Kota hospital.
The Congress has a razor-thin majority in the state and is surviving with the support of rebel BSP MLAs who have joined the party and have been accepted by the Speaker. The current strength of the Assembly is 200, out of which Congress has 112 MLAs with three of CPI(M) and one of RLD supporting it. The BJP has 80 MPs.
The support of 20 MLAs could change the game in its favour.
Move over to Maharashtra, where the coalition government was fraught with challenges, to begin with.
Though during negotiations, the Congress managed to include the word secularism in its common minimum programme, the Shiv Sena has been true to its Hindutva votebank, demanding Bharat Ratna for Savarkar and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray pitching for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Sources said the political differences between the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), alliance partners of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra, are starting to impact the functioning of the state government.
The differences between Shiv Sena and the NCPCongress have come to the fore once again with the recent announcement by chief minister Thackeray that the contentious exercise of the National Population Register (NPR) will be carried out in the state. The Congress and the NCP are both opposed to NPR and the Citizenship Amendment
Act, or CAA. However, the Shiv Sena has been supportive of these measures and had even voted in favour of the CAA in the
Lok Sabha.
“CAA and the National Register of Citizens are different and NPR is different. No one has to