Setback to Cong.(I) in RS elections

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, MARCH 29. The former Union Minister, Ms. Sushma Swaraj, the Union Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh, the former Central Minister, Mr. Janeshwar Mishra, the renegade BJP leader, Sakshi Maharaj, the industrialist, Mr. R.P. Goenka, the BJP neo-convert, Mr. M. Rajasekhar Murthy, and media personalities Mr. Rajiv Shukla and Mr. Balbir Punj, are among the winners in today's biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, and Orissa

The biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha in various States have indicated a significant erosion of central authority over State Legislative parties, especially in the case of the Congress(I). Though the official candidates of the party won easily in Rajasthan and Karnataka, the defeat of its nominee in West Bengal is a clear case of the pradesh leaders finding ways of embarrassing the central leadership, just as had happened in Maharasthra two years ago when Mr. R.D. Pradhan, the personal nominee of the party president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, got defeated.

The rebuff to the Congress(I) in West Bengal is a reversal of its well-known capacity to garner support for its nominees. In 1993, the party candidate, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, won easily and, in fact, got eight more votes than was the party's strength; in 1994, though the Congress(I) candidate, Mr. Santosh Bargodia, did not make the grade he still got more votes than the party's strength.

The initial judgment is that at least eight or 10 Congress(I) MLAs must have deserted the party nominee, Mr. D.P.Ray; these MLAs could be those from South Bengal and have probably reached an understanding with the Trinamul Congress chief, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, about accommodating them in next year's Assembly elections. Even in Karnataka, where all the three official Congress(I) nominees won, Mr. Vijay Mallya, industrialist, secured 10 votes more than he could get on the strength of the political parties supporting him. The initial judgment is that, of these 10 surplus votes some came from the Jaffer Sharief- Bangarappa camp, which has lighted up a small dissident fire.

No less embarrassing for Ms. Sonia Gandhi is the failure of Mr. Inder Khosla to make it to the Upper House. To the extent Mr. Khosla's only claim to fame in the Congress(I) is his life-long service as a functionary of various trusts of the Nehru-Gandhi family, his defeat would be widely seen as a rebuff to the party president. A high-level central cheering team, consisting of the AICC(I) general secretaries - Mr. Motilal Vora, Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde, Mr. Narain Dutt Tiwari and Mr. Salman Khursheed - had been camping in Lucknow for the last two days; these senior leaders were unable to work out any understanding with other political parties in favour of the Congress(I) candidate. If nothing else, the Uttar Pradesh result points to the Congress(I)'s political isolation in the State.

Initial results also suggest that in Orissa, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh party discipline broke down, and there was considerable cross-voting at the expense of Congress(I)'s official candidates. The only consolation for the party's central leadership is that its Bihar unit has remained united, and all the 22 MLAs (who are also Ministers) voted for the RJD- Congress(I) nominee. In the process, the rebel Congress(I) candidate, Mr. Rajni Ranjan Sahu (who was backed by the NDA), got booted out of the party for six years for anti-party activities.

In comparison, the BJP and its allies have managed their troops reasonably well, with the central authority holding ground.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Next     : Further hike in PDS prices