Leaders fighting internal war; Congress, BJP on par
With the infighting of both the Congress and the BJP out in the open in Rajasthan, the high commands of both the parties are feeling helpless. Such internal wars are not new to Congress, but the BJP, which claims to be a disciplined party, is also going the same way.
Like Congress, BJP is also showing scant respect for high command despite the fact that it has a strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rajasthan is a glaring example of this where infighting is on peak in both the Congress and the BJP. High commands of both the parties are unable to do anything. The leadership seems to be busy solving problems in election-bound states. Congress high command is busy dousing infighting in Punjab, whereas BJP leadership is tackling UP'S internal war. BJP is focused on winning back the crucial state of UP. PM Narendra Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat are preparing strategy for UP.
What was seen was that the BJP handled the UP issue cleverly so as to avoid any public display of what was happening within the party. But Congress could not handle the Punjab fight that efficiently with the result that speculation about a split is in the air there. Rahul Gandhi is himself taking care of Punjab, but the situation is nowhere under control. Punjab is the only state where Congress has some hope in the election after seven months.
Like Rajasthan, Congress is witnessing massive infighting in Punjab. Congress leader Navjot Singh Siddhu, who is close to Rahul and Priyanka Vadra, has created a scene there. In Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot's supporters are working against their own party government. Captain Amarinder Singh is the only leader in Punjab who can ensure Congress return to power there. But the high command is talking about various other options and experiments there. It is said that it was Amarinder Singh who had paved the way for Congress victory in Punjab last time. Then, AAP was in a position to turn the tables.
The Congress will be in trouble if Amarinder turns his back on it.
Meanwhile, dissenters are resorting to pressure politics in order to create trouble for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan. Though the high command is backing Gehlot, it is unable to prevent the internal war from coming out in the open. The high command's warning has been ignored by the warring faction.
The BJP in Rajasthan is seeing the same situation. Even the saffron outfit is witnessing faction fighting in most of the states. All is not well in UP, even though a message of unity in the state BJP is being sent out. The BJP leadership is quite concerned about what will happen in upcoming assembly polls. SP leader Akhilesh Yadav's politics based on social engineering has given BJP sleepless nights. What concerns BJP is that SP may try to woo the disgruntled party leaders.
Similarly, there is disquiet in te BJP in other states such as Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Karnataka, MP, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Coming back to Rajasthan where BJP is in a bad shape. Former CM and party's national vice president Vasundhara Raje is being targeted there. This, despite the fact that her mother Vijayaraje Scindia has been one of the founders of the party. The family has been dedicated to the party. Many believe that this could not be possible without support of the Delhi leadership. The high command has started action against the supporters of Raje instead of stopping the infighting. Raje is silent at the moment. She has raised the issue of indiscipline during her meeting with several central party leaders. But the leadership seems to have ignored it. The BJP leadership is engrossed in UP and other states going to elections after seven months. After the Bengal debacle, the party is trying to prepare a more effective political strategy. The Congress' predicament is the result of the fact that states were ignored which led to groupism in states. Congress state in-charge is ineffective. Rahul Gandhi is struggling to placate the disgruntled leaders. BJP is also going the same way.