Chhattisgarh political - June

Analysis

Ahead of state polls in Chhattisgarh, development issue seems to be emerging as a buzz. While Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh is riding to retain power on the same issue, three elected panchayat representatives have to go for failing to do “development”.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Dr Raman Singh took a ride state-wide to spell how his government defined and designed development of the state. The 19-day and six-phased Vikas Yatra (development road-show) concluded on June 29 with a big respite for the ruling party that the yatra went on right road.

“The Vikas Yatra was a great success and people responded to it endorsing the development works taken up by the BJP government (since it came to power in December 2003),” Dr Singh said after the campaign that ended in Jashpur on June 29. BJP President Rajnath Singh and state in-charge for party affairs Ravi Shankar Prasad were specially present at the concluding function.

The BJP leadership however have all the reasons to smile. For, the Vikas Yatra that only centred in and around the development issues evoked good response from the people at different corners of the state. The chief minister wholeheartedly sanctioned new development works that would cost crores of rupees.

The campaign started from Maoist-infested Dantewada district on May 23 and ended in Jashpur—the centre of inter state gangs active in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. But law and order was not an issue that was evident the way people clapped for Dr Singh when he addressed gatherings from the stages and roof-top of his chariot (rath).

According to political observers, the BJP leadership is well aware which cards to play in the ensuing assembly elections, due for October-November. Since the issue of development is the biggest card to deal with the anti-incumbency, the saffron strategists know very well that it will hit the right target to counter the opposition party, Congress, which is yet to work out a plan to propel its cadre to election mode.

The faction-ridden main opposition party Congress is struggling to set its home in order before attacking the ruling party. The simmering differences between different camps in the party spilled out in open on June 27 when party activists clashed for an ugly show in Korba in front of senior party leaders who have been entrusted to take the challenges of BJP and ensure victory of the Congress that was rooted out of power in December 2003.

The Congress leaders are confused to tackle the anti-incumbency factors while the BJP has scored over to spell out its development agenda and have gone before the people through the Vikas Yatra well ahead of the onset of election campaign to inform the electorate about its achievements and archives. For the Congress leaders, it would not be an easy task to grill the government on the issue of development.

Had the Congress succeeded in launching a campaign before the BJP’s Yatra, things would have changed as people could not have been convinced with the development formula of Raman Singh. During the regime of previous Congress government headed by Ajit Jogi, the state had no doubt seen a new horizon of development. but the failure of Congress party to encash the issue resulted in its ouster from the power.

The BJP leadership would not commit the same mistake. And the Vikas Yatra strategy stands testimony to it. The party is also planning to take Vijay Yatra (victory campaign) before the electioneering starts on the same issue to consolidate its position before the electorate. The saffron brigade knows the importance of development. And it was in its tenure that Chhattisgarh created history by voting out three panchayat presidents for failing to take up development work.

People of Gunderdehi, Rajpur and Nawagarh Nagar Panchayats on June 17 created history by toppling the President of their respective civic body by casting vote against them by exercising the right bestowed under the state Nagar Palika Act to recall elected representatives.

Under Section 47 (recall of the president) of Chhattisgarh Nagar Palika Adhiniyam 1961, election can be sought to recall the elected representatives if three-fourth of the total number of corporators in the municipal bodies give in writing to the collector that the president has lost the confidence of the body and hence election be held to recall.

Though people’s power ousted the three elected representatives, progress (development) and politics were the main driving force that led to the historic battle of ballots in the three sleepy towns of Durg and Sarguja districts. The corporators blamed the presidents for obstructing the development works and affecting the progress of the panchayat area while moving proposals to collectors.

Bihar Political- June

Analysis

The rebellion in the BJP against the deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, seems to be over in Bihar with the central leadership declaring him as the leader of legislature party following his majority in the organization.The party summoned all the legislators to New Delhi and held secret voting. Modi got popular support in the secret ballots and the party president, Rajnath Singh declared him as the undisputed leader. For the last six months, the deputy chief minister was facing rebellion in the legislature party following cabinet reshuffle in which some influential party ministers were dropped from the cabinet.

The rebel leaders who had been camping in New Delhi returned to Patna after losing the vote of no-confidence and reaffirmed their faith in Modi. The two senior ministers, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey and Nandkishore Yadav, who were leading the anti-Modi campaign also declared their faith in Modi .With Modi returning to Patna after getting support of the central high-command and also his legislators, the BJP is now engaged in preparations for the coming Lok Sabha elections. The central high-command can not dare top ignore Modi,a senior party leader and also a popular leader of the backward castes ,who are deciding factor in the elections in the state. Modi has also backing of the Sangh, since he was former Pracharak too.

New political equations are seem to be developing in the state/The Lok Janshakti party chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, has appreciated the role of the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, in developing the state and declared Kumar was doing better than Lalu Prasad Yadav.Paswan, who is keen to get his wife elected as member of Parliament ,is also trying to have adjustment with Kumar For both Kumar and Paswan, Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD is the common enemy and Paswan who had contested the last elections without entering into alliance with other parties may enter into strategic adjustment with the Janta Dal(U) to ensure RJD's downfall.

Paswan has tried to establish himself as Mr Clean as he did not come out in the open to support Suraj Bhan, the LJP member of Lok Sabha,who was convicted for life by a court in Begusarai in a murder case. Suraj Bhan,who was elected on LJP ticket in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections is considered the main financer for Paswan.

The Governor,R S Gavai,has been removed mid-way through his five year's term and sent to Kerla.The veteran Congress leader and Kerala Governor, R L Bhatia, has replaced Gavai, who had earned the goodwill of the people and the government as he had improved the academic atmosphere in the state. Due to his efforts as the chancellor of the universities, examinations are now being held on schedule and results also getting declared within stipulated period, in some cases even within three days of last dates of the examinations, as done by Patna University this year. Teachers, even the senior political leaders enrolled on the jobs in different universities had started attending to their classes due to his directives. The chief minister, Nitish Kumar, has taken serious objection to Gavai's removal and claimed it was against the recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission, Kumar claimed Gavai had done a lot for improvement of education in the state and got the universities freed from politics as he even got several senior teachers suspended for not taking classes.

Madhya Pradesh political- June

Analysis

Assembly elections in the state are five months’ away, but all the major political parties including the BJP, the Congress, the BSP, Uma Bharti led BJS and the NCP have already initiated their efforts to chalk out strategy for the polls.

Union Civil Aviation Minister and Nationalist Congress Party's Madhya Pradesh in-charge Praful Patel who was in the capital recently said his party would contest 80 to 100 seats in the state's assembly polls. Though experts feel that the NCP and Congress will go for a tie-up as then they will have a better chance of upsetting the claims of BJP.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will also be playing a bigger role in the forthcoming elections and who knows it may outdo its own expectations. The districts bordering Uttar Pradesh are in the influence of BSP and it might play an important role there. The BSP has already launched special drive to gear up for assembly elections. It has been conducting conventions of different communities throughout the state, in view of implementing 'social engineering' like in Uttar Pradesh. Besides targeting other upper castes, the party is concentrating on Brahmin community.

The party has already conducted conventions of different segments of the society in different parts of the state. Besides, the BSP has become the first party in the state to declare it candidates for assembly elections that are five months away. Following its election strategy, the BSP has already declared its candidates in 62 constituencies. Of them, maximum number of seats has been allotted to Brahmins, Rajputs are on the second, while OBCs are on the third. This has indicated the strategy of the BSP as how it is going in polls in November.

State president of BSP Bhujbal Singh Ahirwar, who’s party decided not to contest civic body polls, is upbeat after the victory of a former BSP worker in the recently held the Malajkhand municipality polls as an independent.

The BJP on the other hand after having introduced 33 percent reservation for women in the party, is working overtime to woo women voters. The party is giving final touches to specially designed campaign to target women. Conventions of women are being convened at district-level and they are being informed about women oriented schemes introduced by the State Government.

Going by the past records of the last assembly elections, there were 3.79 crore voters in the state out of which 1.81 voters used their franchise including 1.12 crore females. The voting percentage in the election was 57.25, which included 62.14 percent female votes. Sensing the important of women voters, the BJP has prepared a strategy to target women across the state. The party has prepared date-wise programmes for women conventions in each district. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is touring constituencies, is addressing women informing about party’s attitude towards fairer sex. Chouhan has already addressed over a dozen such meetings.

In past four years, the State Government has launched several schemes oriented towards the women. The most recent being 'Usha Kiran Yojana'. Laxmi Yojana has been a grand success and it has been implemented in other states as well. Besides the Laxmi Yojana other schemes like the Janani Express Yojana, Janani Suraksha Yojana, have helped both the women and the BJP.

Chouhan is working on a strategy that walks on the line of striking a rapport with smaller but influential social groups in addition of holding caste and sub-caste panchayats. In the recent past, he has already orgnaised panchayats of Kotwars, women, sports persons, physically challenged, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, farmers, youths and others. The decision of giving pension to MISA detainees was also one of those decisions that may not seem important in the present but it becomes vital when one considers that this not only helped the BJP in gaining support from over 2,000 families but also generated goodwill among the middle and lower class working group.

While the BJP continues to chip away at the smaller groups and working towards strengthening and broadening its support base, the main opposition Congress is still struggling to present a united face of the party and looking for 'big issues' which till now has eluded them . The recent corruption charges against one of the BJP ministers came as a god-send gift, but by the time Congress could wake up and grab the chance, the minister resigned and the issue was consigned to flames.

The visit of Sonia Gandhi did nothing spectacular to lift the dropping shoulders of the state Congress workers. Suresh Pachouri , the state Congress chief it seems is still grappling with the inner intricacies. Congress’s chance of a victory in Madhya Pradesh, like in Chhattisgarh appears grim.

Ends

Pandit Shyama Charan Shukla- an obituary

This obituary was written by my dad when Shyama Charan Shukla passed away in Chhattisgarh in February 2007. I came across it while surfing a news-site, posting it here.

Pandit Shyamacharan Shukla,the veteran of Congress politics of central India passed away 15 days back..

I am writing this just to share my experiences of interaction with the literally towering leader .I was taken to his Shankar Nagar(Khamardih) house by one of his non-political followers when I landed at Raipur from Kashmir after formation of Chhattisgarh.I was conducted into the inner room of the bungalow ,where Pandit Shukla was having his evening breakfast.Large number of his admirers and followers were in the hall .Pandit Shukla inquired about my background-Bihar and told about his Bihar connections too.

He offered me tea,which he prepared himself after inquiring about sugar quantity.He offered me fried items,like chana,daal,besan made sev etc.We discussed about Chhattisgarh politics for about 45 minutes.Since,the state was new,he told about the various leaders and their role in state politics.He was NOT at all critical of any leader and told about the importance of individual leaders.He told about the irrigation networking created during his chief ministership and suggested some ideas about how to develop the infant state.He talked about industrial potentialities and also agricultural growth of Chhattisgarh.He shared some of his experiences in Congress poltics-vis-a vis,Ms Sonia Gandhi.

He appeared to be an attentive listener too as he invited my ideas too.Pandit Shukla must have consumed three cups of tea from the Pot during the meeting.

What touched me most about Pandit Shukla was his gesture of coming out of his room to seem me off.He did not listen to my request to say good bye from the room itself.One may not believe,but he came to my car ,barefoot and left only after I was in the car and the engine was switched on.He was the tallest politician ,like Biju Patnaik.Like Bijubabu,Pandit Shukla has also great heart,he was hospitable like Bijubabu .

The greatness of the man who was thrice the chief minister of undivided Madhya Pradesh was evident in my first encounter itself.

Pandit Shukla could not get due from the party in the fag end of his life.His life could have been longer.He could not be appointed Governor of a state,though his name was in circulation for the last three years.He was Pandit in all respects. Late Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister had attended the funeral of Jagjivan Ram at his village in Ara and his petroleum minister,Chandrashekhar Singh at Munger.One was expecting, Soniaji's presence at the funeral of Pandit Shukla.

ends

Patna Diary

Long time since I used my blog for news that was related to me. This can be attributed to what I call the "wheel of life" which i am witnessing right now, a phase which is characterized by the turning of wheels-when so much is happening yet you cannot say anything conclusively until the wheel stops.

Initially i planned to pursue MBA from Chandragupta Institute of Management, Patna (www.cimp.in). It I finally settle down for CIMP, I will be among the 60 students who maybe 4-5 years down the line will proudly say that we were the first batch of CIMP. The Pioneers! When I made up my mind of doing MBA in summer of 07, my mind was hovering around places like Delhi,Pune and Mumbai for these are the cities that houses some of the best business schools of India. And I candidly admit that Patna was not even in the wildest of my dreams.

The journey which started from the entrance test for IRMA went all the way to the exam for the NarseeMonjee and in between I made a brief stopover at CAT . I missed IRMA by 5 marks, Narsee by 7 and the CAT score left me with IMT(N) and score of other colleges which I can safely say were in the top 40.

After the rest at CIMP which i though was the final abode, the wheels started spinning again and as of now a major part of my thought process is centered around doing MBA or Msc from Leeds University or University of Central Lancashire.

Only time will tell what the wheels hold..maybe Patna maybe Leeds!

Recently one of my college mate Roy got married to his child-hood sweet heart. He courted her for more than 8 years. Another of my friend Prashanth who is from Bangalore too is following the foot steps of Roy and after more than 7 years of a blissful relationship with a girl from Bhopal for more than 7 years is finally getting married on the 25th of June.

Good things happen to good people.May god be as kind to all of us who fall in the category of Roy and Prashanth as he has been to them.

Adieu

Chhattisgarh political analysis May

With the final count-down for the ensuing Assembly elections starts in Chhattisgarh, Congressmen in the state rally behind the unity mantra to take on the rallies of Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh.

May 23 will have a great significance when the new government will assume office later in the month of December this year. For, it was on this day the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a Gujarat-model of Yatra to retain power while opposition Congress went for a major overhaul in the party model to prepare for the coming polls.

Dr Singh launched his Vikas Yatra (road show) to propel the party workers in election mode from the headquarters of worst-Maoist hit Dantewada district. Leader of Opposition and BJP’s Prime Minister candidate L K Advani along with state polls in-charge Ravishankar Prasad were specially present to flag off the Yatra

During his six-phased Yatra, Dr Singh is scheduled to address as many as 1,200 public meetings and rallies in the 90 assembly constituencies of the state. “I want to directly interact with the people. And it is not possible by flying in a chopper,” Dr Singh said while explaining about the motive of his road show.

But the road show of the chief minister is guided more by the Gujarat formula than the local one. The Vikas Rath (Chariot) is reported to be the same in which Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi covered the length and breadth of his state before the elections that rode him back to power. The Rath has been redesigned according to the taste of Dr Singh and the state. But the strategy and the mechanism of Gujarat model remain the same.

While the “Sarthi (driver)” of Modi’s Rath is driving Dr Singh’s chariot, the motor mechanics to take care of technical snags have also come from Gujarat. The message is clear—the driver is guiding the road as he did in Gujarat while the mechanics are here to rectify the technical snags if coming in its way to stop Raman Singh for taking his party to retain power in the state.

The Gujarat model is certainly in action and the master-strategists of the ruling party are selling the development theory as it worked in Gujarat to convince people that Chhattisgarh has seen a new phase of development after the BJP government assumed office in December 2003.

The only difference between Chhattisgarh and Gujarat is that, Dr Singh avoids taking a drive in the pockets that reel under one of the biggest problems the state is facing from the Maoists. Though Dr Singh started his Yatra from Dantewada, he missed to attend a single rally--contrary to the claim that he will hold meetings in each assembly constituency—in worst Maoist-hit Konta and Bijapur Assembly segments in Bastar.

Dr Singh took the roads that did not pass from the territories that red army claims to be theirs and under its influence. While he successfully completed his Yatra in Maoist-hotbed of Bastar region, the Chief Minister’s convoy passed through the National Highway or main roads instead of going to the interior areas where he could get the exact picture of his Vikas Mantra.

“Since there is no Vikas (development) in the Maoist-hit areas, the Vikas Yatra of the chief minister missed to roll in the interior areas,” a senior leader of the ruling party quipped. The BJP strategists are confident that it will not have much impact as only five to six seats can be categorised as under the influence of the rebels. But the BJP leaders failed to count the rebels had their presence in the tribals pockets and in the House of 90, the 29 seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) holds the key to power.

The opposition party however committed another mistake by failing to acknowledge the importance of 29 tribal seats in the state while appointing a politically low-profiled Dhanendra Sahu as the new President of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee. “A tribal party chief in the state could have been a better bet,” said a senior Congress leader from the state.

The move of giving big onus to Dhanendra, a sitting Congress legislator, is to rig the Sahu votes that also play important role in changing the political equation of electoral politics in the state. In the move to sway the other backward class, Charandas Mahant has been retained as working President of the PCC—a demotion of post as he earlier held the post of state party chief.

Another Congress legislator and a Brahmin face of the Congress in Chhattisgarh, Satyanarayan Sharma has also been appointed as working president of the party. Sharma in fact has a capacity to propel the party workers to take on challenges, his election strategies in by-elections in the state has yielded the desired results for the party.

The Congressmen in the state have rallied behind the unity mantra in the new party organisational set up. A massive welcome rally in the state capital on May 29 with senior leaders of all factions on board the Ekta Rath demonstrating unity has charged the party workers. But the unity under a single leadership and now a series of leaders could help the party in better way.

Now with Karnataka going away from the Congress, it has become clear that the failure of party to project chief minister’s candidate has given advantage to the opponent. A high time, Congress should think of a one in Chhattisgarh and other states that go to the polls later in the year.

Madhya Pradesh political analysis May

On the one hand the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has swung into election mode by attacking on Congress led UPA, while on the other the state Congress has hardly got its campaign off the ground. Over the past one week, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the BJP have been busy attacking the Centre on price rise, and an alleged supply of substandard wheat and several other issues.

The BJP election in-charge for MP, Venkaiah Naidu has made it clear to party workers in no ambigious term that corrupt image is something the party would just not tolerate. Naidu has time and again cited the precedence of Gujarat where the clean image of the government and its developmental agenda won it assembly polls hands down and he has reiterated that the party would not want to compromise on the formula.

This new ‘clean-image’ formula took its first toll on Health Minister Ajay Vishnoi after he was asked by the BJP central leadership to resign after his brother’s premises was raided by the Income Tax Deprtment in the wake of alleged medicine purchase scam by the state health department.

More heads could roll as three present ministers of the cabinet have been charged with allegedly demanding donations from state officials. This include forest minister Kunwar Vijay Shah, Minister of state Harendejeet Singh `Babbu’ and Fisheries minister Moti Kashyap. In all the cases the complainer has been government servants and bureaucrats.

According to sources a list is being chalked out to ensure that the `tainted’ faces are distanced from the government as soon as possible so that by the time the electioneering is at peak, the negative impact of these ministers are dulled. Many of the sitting MLAs are also sure to lose tickets, but the tainted ministers are naturally on top of the agenda.

Rumors have it that at least three ministers might soon be dropped from the state cabinet and the one facing the sharpest axe is revenue minister Kamal Patel. Six ministers have reportedly being listed as liability on clean image of government but the proximity of three of them to the senior leaders in Delhi might save the day for them.In such situation, the party is likely to take some stern steps to distance itself from the black sheep and give its best shot at winning the second consecutive term in MP.

The speculation that Uma Bharti would soon make a comeback to BJP was finally laid to rest after BJP Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani personally managed to thwart the proposal of re-entry of the firebrand leader into the party folds, putting such conditions that would certainly be rejected by the former MP Chief Minister.

During a high level core committee meeting, Advani overruled party president Rajnath Singh’s proposal to let Uma Bharti return.The party stalwart – who was instrumental in mentoring Bharti into a national leader – insisted that Uma could return only on condition of forgetting Madhya Pradesh politics and providing consent of contesting next Lok Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh.

Advani is upset that Uma, who was sacked from party for indiscipline, has not mended her ways and continues to attack leaders like Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. Rajnath’s interest in getting Uma back was to build a strong counter force to the second generation leaders, but failing to marshal enough support in the core committee, he decided to forget the proposition for the time being.

Bihar Political Analysis May

PATNA:The 30 –months-old NDA government in Bihar faces crisis for its survival due to differences within the alliance. The recent attack on a senior BJP legislator, Phalguni Prasad Yadav, at Chakai in Jamui district by the food minister, Narendra Kumar Singh, in a public meeting has once again exposed the rift between the two partners of the NDA in Bihar.

In an earlier incident the then culture and sports minister, Janardan Singh Segriwal,a senior BJP leader was publicly humiliated by a Janata Dal(U) legislator, Rampravesh Rai, in the minister’s constituency. The minister was insulted by the Janata Dal(U) legislator on the high-way.

The BJP legislators are agitated as they feel they are being treated as number two in the NDA government. They feel that the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, has done nothing to control his party legislators and leaders who have time and again acted against the BJP. Narendra Kumar Singh is senior to Kumar in the politics and had been involved in many controversies in the past too. In November 2,005, he had assaulted a magistrate on duty at the assembly gate as the magistrate wanted his identity card. Last year, he assaulted an old woman at Sabour Agriculture University, where the woman had gone to seek job for his son.

The minister and the BJP MLA, Phalguni Prasad Yadav, were sharing the dais for an official function at Chakai. Later the minister pushed the legislator and he fell down from the dais and fractured his leg. The BJP legislators have complained about the matter to senior leaders in Delhi and their legislature party leader, Sushil Kumar Modi, who is himself facing rebellion in the BJP for “mortgaging” the party to the Janata Dal(U).

The BJP legislators are seeking his removal as they feel that it is due to him that JD(U) which was a smaller party than BJP in Bihar has now overgrown BJP. The rebels have been out in the open ever since the cabinet reshuffle took place and they allege that Modi has always used his proximity to party president Rajnath Singh and general secretary Arun Jaitley to quiet any dissent in the party.

Earlier the rebels were confined to the in-house discussions but this time it appears that the nearly two dozens legislatures have decided to go for an all out war. The fact that Portfolios of two senior party leaders Nand Kishore Yadav and Ashwini Chaubey were changed has given fuel to the fire and it would require more than political acumen on the part of Modi to douse this fire.

The state BJP is also apprehensive that in the next general election it would be the JD(U) that will win hands down as all the credit of the work being undertaken in the state has the stamp of Nitish Kumar in it and he has successfully managed to portray himself as the face of the present government. This has led to the fear among the party legislatures that BJP would be reduced to a non-entity in the next election. And they feel that’s it’s Modi who is responsible for this as according to them Modi has promoted himself, not the party.

Madhya Pradesh Analysis April

The Betul by-election outcome is likely to make a deep impact on the assembly elections scheduled in November this year. Buoyed by Betul result, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is likely to have a greater say in the future ticket distribution. The results have given the Chief Minister a greater say in preparing ground for the assembly elections.

BJP candidate Hemant Khandelwal polled a total of 3, 00,674 votes against 2, 65,234 scored by Sukhdev Panse from Congress, a sitting MLA. After the recent defeat of BJP in Khargone Lok Sabha and Shivpuri, Sanwer and Lanjhi assembly by-elections, the party candidate emerging triumph in Betul has provided the much needed relief to its workers.

After the Betul result, ministers in whose constituencies, the party was defeated might face some hard questions. Informed sources feel that in the event of poor showing by BJP, Chouhan would have been dependent upon party leadership and high command for working out strategies for forthcoming assembly elections but now his recommendations and views would find bigger space in the next round of assembly elections.

Though the BJP emerged triumphed in Betul still it lost two assembly segments Harda and Masaud which analyst feel is an indication that the ruling party is losing base in these segments.

Chindwara warhorse and Union commerce minister Kamal Nath has reasons to feel low these days. Firstly his candidate for the Rajya Sabha Seat, Vivek Tankha was not able to make into the upper house despite Kamalnath putting his best efforts and then came the Betul result.

Betul verdict came as a big blow to Kamal Nath as he had camped in Betul for a long time and campaigned extensively in favour of Congress candidate Sukhdev Panse. Sources close to Kamal Nath have suggested that he is blaming party colleague and state PCC chief Suresh Pachori among others for the debacle in Betul as he feels that the state Congress body was more interested in Kamal Nath losing his face than Sukhdev Panse winning. It must be also added that senior Congress functionaries had cautioned Kamalnath that Betul would be a tough nut and he should not waste his force there.

BJP won the Betul seat for the fifth time in a row. Congress during the campaigning had paraded its MPs Sachin Pilot and Priya Dutt besides AICC Secretary Jitin Prasad while BJP relied on party president Rajnath Singh to emerge winner.

Betul has always been a saffron bastion and the Congress has emerged victorious on only two previous occasions. Fist when the whole of India was experiencing the Indira wave and the second when the Congress was riding on popularity of Rajiv Gandhi.

The inner discontent that had emerged in the party ever since Suresh Pachori took over as the new state PCC chief has now lost some of its steam. This has been possible after every major faction was given a representation in various local Congress bodies. This has given Pachori much needed time to concentrate on other important matters like working on the groundwork for the assembly elections.

The state PCC is focusing on spreading UPAs achievement among the electorate in the state. Pachori has asked the workers to highlight achievement like 27 percent quota in educational institutions and setting up of first of its kind 'tribal university' in Amarkantak among the voters. The PCC is also working on the lines of linking both these ‘achievements’ to Arjun Singh , as they feel that this will increase the benefits as Arjun Singh is from Madhya Pradesh.

With only six-months in hand Bharatiya Janata Party has established an election cell in the state party headquarters under Anil Dave, state BJP vice president who has been appointed in-charge of the cell.

The BJP meanwhile launched the ambitious the state-level Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana which would provide subsidized food grains to BPL families. Under this scheme, each BPL family (holder of blue ration card) would be provided 20 kilogramme food grains per month. Wheat would be provided at the rate of Rs three per kg and rice at the rate of Rs 4.50 per kg from ration shops.

The party had launched a similar program in the neighboring state of Chhattsigarh with much funfair. In the past two-years, ruling BJP Government has launched various people oriented welfare schemes in the State including 50 per cent reservation to women in Gram Panchayat level and ‘Ladli Laxmi Yojna’. Needless to say the forthcoming elections are playing on the minds of both the BJP and Congress, and both are leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters.

Bihar political Analysis April

The long awaited cabinet reshuffle in Bihar has threatened to turn into a major headache for both the JD (U) and BJP. The shuffle was being awaited for the last 2 and a half years by the legislatures and their supporters from both the coalition partner and when now it has finally occurred it has led to growing tensions in BJP and JD(U).

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar replaced ten members of his Cabinet and added 19 new faces. Eight leaders from the Janata Dal (U) and two ministers from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) were asked to resign from their ministership on ground of 'less than satisfactory performance'.

The state BJP is facing its first major problem since time immemorial. Angry protests and voice of dissent among the supporters of those leaders who were dropped from the cabinet including former Sports, Art & Culture Minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal and former Health Minister Chandramohan Rai has forced the BJP headquarters in Delhi to intervene.

Former ministers and their supporters are pressing for the removal of Deputy CM Sushil Modi and party state president Radha Mohan Singh. The removal of Chandramohan Rai has caused the most resentment as he is a very senior leader and had done quite well when he was in charge of the Health ministry.

The disgruntled leaders of BJP are blaming Modi of practicing autocratic culture and have alleged that he is doing all he can to stop any other party leader from gaining roots. The vociferous protests forced the BJP to summon Modi twice to Delhi in order to work out some solution. Kalraj Mishra, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary and party in-charge of Bihar was also rushed to Patna to calm the protestors but he was not able to make any headway.

Though reports coming from within the party suggest that Modi has been given a breather till the Karnataka polls and the dissenters have been told that their issues will be sorted out after the polls in Karnataka and till then they have been asked to cooperate with the new ministers and avoid using media to voice their anger.

It’s not that JD (U) hasn’t developed any fissures post reshuffle but Nitish Kumar has been able to quell any such protest within the JD (U) only because he is a much taller leader than Modi. No other leader in the state JD (U) can match the political credentials of Nitish. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about Modi who though is experienced yet is young when it comes to some of the senior state BJP leaders. And it’s these leaders that have let it know to the party High command that they are being felt led down and their long standing loyalty is being ignored.

In between all the recent political development it seems that “Development of Bihar” has taken a back seat. Although Nitish Kumar has categorically said that development of Bihar will still be the main emphasis of the present state government but it’s anyone guess that with clashes of so many political aspirations and ambitions, how long the social and economic development of Bihar will continue to be the primary focus.