Crucial Sonia-Shah proxy battle in limbo

The much-awaited result of the Rajya Sabha battle of the ballot between the BJP and the Congress with party president Sonia Gandhi’s prime protégé Ahmed Patel on test in one of the three contests has, with its postponement, confounded pollsters and politicians alike. With Congress’ seemingly bizarre objections to two Congress candidates allegedly showing their ballots to BJP president Amit Shah having been rejected by the Election Commission, it was expected that the counting would resume. But with delegation after delegation meeting the EC, the counting and the result is in limbo. Evidently, the stakes are high. The defeat of four-time Congress member of Parliament and closest Sonia Gandhi protégé with cross-voting from Congress ranks for the BJP candidate Balwantsinh Rajput would be a huge setback for the Congress and personally for Sonia. There was never any doubt that the other two BJP nominees—Amit Shah and Smriti Irani--would win hands down. However, the Congress had a major advantage for the third seat which fell vacant, and would in the normal course have sailed through because it had 57 members as against the requirement of 45. But an element of prestige was added to the battle which was in effect a proxy fight between Sonia Gandhi and BJP chief Amit Shah. Speculation is rife on who would finally win but acrimony between the two parties is at its peak and the BJP is seemingly on stronger ground.

There was indeed a groundswell of dissatisfaction with Ahmed Patel in New Delhi as well as Gandhinangar because of the imperious way in which he was managing the affairs of the party under Sonia Gandhi’s patronage. The manner in which the Congress party whisked away 44 of its legislators to a resort in Gujarat virtually holding them captive and denying them an opportunity to meet with BJP leaders until Tuesday’s election, betrayed a clear nervousness of the Congress high command over the likely outcome of the Rajya Sabha polls. Ironically, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had on Monday opined that the Congress was going through an existential crisis and that it needed to put all heads together to tide over it. That advice is echoing in political circles since then. The Congress indeed has been hurtling from crisis to crisis with recent electoral reverses in some states. With confusion rampant in the party on whether Rahul Gandhi would after all be anointed as party president, there is demoralization all round. Doubtlessly, as things stand, Gujarat has only added to the Congress’ growing irrelevance and the lack of clear direction that its leadership is giving. All eyes are on Ahmed Patel but the downslide of the Congress is for all to see regardless of who wins.