Mirch Masala

First India Sunday Special

BY TRIDIB RAMAN

The author is a journalist and political commentator and views expressed are his personal

WHY HAS JANARDHANA REDDY BECOME A HEADACHE FOR BJP?

On the one hand, where K’taka polls have become a barb for BJP, a former BJP Minister & mining baron G Janardhana Reddy broke ties with BJP and launched his new party ‘Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha’ on December 25, 2022 which is causing displeasure to the Saffron Party. CBI has not only started tightening its noose on the Reddy brothers, but in the recent past, the Special Court of CBI has written letters to the governments of four countries i.e. Switzerland, Singapore, Aile of Man and UAE to arrest the Reddy brothers since 2008. Details of all transactions done during 2012 have been sought. In fact, BJP is facing a tough fight in upcoming polls in Karnataka, while it has received reports that ‘the Reddy brothers are favouring Congress in at least 15 assembly seats in the State’. Janardhana Reddy himself is likely to contest from

Koppal’s Gangavathi seat and his wife Aruna Lakshmi from Bellary city. Karnataka BJP leaders have conveyed this to Amit Shah, who has asked them to keep calm. Soon after this, Karnataka CM Bommai’s statement came that ‘Reddy will return to his old party i.e. BJP’, but Janardhan Reddy called this claim, a rumour. It should be noted that both the brothers of Janardhana are currently MLAs in BJP. Janardhana Reddy has decided that ‘he will give his party ticket to big rebels of BJP and Congress and will also give financial assistance of Rs 5 crore to contest elections’. Reddy feels that ‘BJP didn’t support him when he was under pressure from investigative agencies over illegal mining’. He also feels that he has unknowingly been a victim of BL Santhosh vs Yeddiyurappa battle in party, because he was always counted among Yeddi’s loyal soldiers.

WHEN WILL CONGRESS NAT’L PREZ KHARGE’S NEW TEAM BE FORMED?

Mallikarjun Kharge was elected as the National President of the Congress on October 19, 2022 and a week later on October 26, he also took charge. It has been five months since then, but Kharge has not been able to form his new team. Kharge had dissolved all the existing committees of the party as soon as he became the President saying that ‘the new team will now sit there’, but till now the work of the party is going on with the help of the 47-member Steering Committee. When asked, a close friend of Kharge says, ‘since the Gandhi family has clearly said that there will be no interference of Sonia, Rahul or Priyanka in the formation of new committees, Kharge is meeting different groups of the party and seeking their opinion. We are contemplating.” Sources reveal that the blueprint of Kharge’s new team is almost ready and that Kharge is setting up a relatively small team, which is somewhere inspired by the team size of late Rajiv Gandhi. Only six General Secretaries can be made, one General Secretary can have the charge of usually 5 states. There will be a network of secretaries below them, and one secretary can get the responsibility of one state. The Secretary shall report to the General Secretary concerned. Keeping in view the general elections of 2024, the formation of an election management committee is also under consideration and after that an Election Department will also be formed. This Election Department will be entrusted with the responsibility of Lok Sabha as well as Assembly polls. There are already murmurs in the party that ‘where the BJP has already shelled out for the assembly elections, no such preparation is visible at the Congress’ side.’ Kharge is neither visiting the poll-bound states nor is he sending senior party people there. Kharge went to Nagaland with Shashi Tharoor only for one day during the North East elections. Kharge has gone to Karnataka, his home state, where elections are due, for just a day. Congress has been able to win only 8 seats out of 180 seats in the Northeast, which is a matter of concern for the Party.

Uproar In Bihar Congress

Recently, the State Disciplinary Committee of Bihar Congress, under the chairmanship of Kripashankar Pathak, issued show cause notices to 5 state leaders - Siddharth Kshatriya, Prabhat Kumar Chandravanshi, Arshad Abbas Azad, Shakiur Rahman and Praveen Sharma. These leaders are accused of making some audio and video clips viral on social media regarding some alleged financial transactions about their State President Akhilesh Prasad Singh. Now, a section of the Bihar Congress is raising questions on this disciplinary committee itself that ‘this committee is fake, it is a disbanded committee.’ They argue that ‘when the party’s National President Kharge first dissolved all the elected committees of the party, then how does this disciplinary committee exist?’ Congress’s Bihar in-charge Bhakta Charan Das constituted this 5-member disciplinary committee in December 2021, which no longer exists legally. These days, there is a lot of hue and cry on the social media regarding Akhilesh Prasad’s ‘closeness’ with BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy. While some party leaders claim that ‘this entire matter is related to making delegates in Congress,’ Akhilesh is being accused that ‘he has put 70% names of his close people in the list of delegates’.

BJP is preparing for a grand celebration of construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya from January 1, 2024 to January 31, 2024, as any day after January 14, this grand Ram temple is to be inaugurated by Narendra Modi, and BJP’s intention is to make the country to convey the message that ‘If there is any real savior of Hindutva then it is our PM Narendra Modi!’