Congress included, opposition parties need to unite
The results of five state assembly elections has given a new lease of hope to opposition parties, simultaneously descending a pall of gloom on BJP over its dismal performance. Had these states been won by BJP, the hope of Operation Lotus would have received some boost in Karnataka too.
Yeddyurappa would have started some ground work with a fond hope of being reinstated as the CM again. The mine mafia was all set to throw money around to ensure this would happen. But since these states gave their verdict in the opposite direction, the pipe dream of BJP leaders is now forced to remain. So these results have given the opposition parties a new hope to build something on.
A good unity and possibility of a coalition among them is all very inevitable now. Earlier, Communist leader such as Harkishan Singh Surjeet would take the lead in ensuring there is a good understanding between parties in such situations. There were leaders such as Jyoti Basu. But none of them exist now. Left parties aren’t playing a major role in the country’s politics. Hence, to bring the opposition parties together, Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu has set the ball in motion.
After the BJP assumed power in the centre, constitutional aided administration has been severely compromised upon. Premier institutions like CBI, RBI and the other autonomous institutions have also been meddled with, by the government.
At times like this, secular federations, organisations and parties have to come together to achieve a single objective and offer pro-people programmes to achieve some core goals. No single party can ever hope to tame the tentacles of this octopus called corporate sector that has encouraged the majority communalism along with funding the BJP.
But there are naturally many issues with such a coalition coming together. In the undivided Andhra, Telugu Desam and TRS do not have a conducive understanding with each other. Congress is the main opposition for the ruling left parties in Bengal and CPM in Kerala. They both are willing to come together against a common enemy. If the opposition parties come together putting behind their differences, they can defeat the communal BJP and its allies in no time.
But then if Modi succeeds in clinching the power second time over, the efforts to create an RSS-specific Hindu Rashtra will intensify with no holds barred. If this is to be stopped, the opposition parties have to come together. This should not be a convenient arrangement but an honest one. Former PM Deve Gowda has to take the lead in this. CPIM secretary Sitaram Yechury must allow such a possibility to take shape. Mayawati’s BSP is also thinking on those lines.
Now their Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh units have already declared their support to Congress to form the government. Stalin of DMK, Chandrababu Naidu and TSR also have a very significant role to play. BJP may have lost in five states, but it will not keep quiet in Lok Sabha elections. The coming together of opposition parties is inevitable if the country is not to be submitted to fascists.
Congress needs to change its approach. It is going back to a lethargic approach soon as it has delivered a victory. It forgets the danger communal forces pose to the society and makes space for only opportunists. Former CM Siddaramaiah has said this is not the time to celebrate victory but to stand firmly against communal forces and fight them back. Congress has to strengthen its base of activists and party workers at cadre levels. They have to be informed about the secular credentials of the party. It should not stick to the dual stance it is exhibiting in the case of women’s entry into Sabarimala in Kerala where Congress seems to have joined hands with BJP to keep women out against the SC rule. This is opportunistic politics. Congress must think about a united opposition front at times of challenge like this.
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Priyanka Gandhi: Cong's talismanic campaigner enters Parliament after 'long, long time'
New Delhi (PTI): Will she? Will she not? And on Saturday, she did. After years of frenzied speculation, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is finally entering the Lok Sabha after a resounding win from Wayanad with many a hope that she will re-energise her party and its dwindling electoral fortunes.
The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, would visit Parliament as a teenager to listen to her father Rajiv Gandhi speak as prime minister. Four decades later, she joins as member herself -- her detractors crying nepo politics and her party supporters laying out the proverbial red carpet for a promise finally met.
She should have been a politician to the manner born given the Gandhi legacy. But Priyanka Gandhi took the long and winding way into mainstream politics. First were the questions of whether the mother of two would join active politics, and then whether and when she would contest elections.
In September 1999, she told a journalist her entry into politics may take a "long, long time". And it actually did. She took the plunge 20 years later in 2019 and was later appointed Congress general secretary.
Five years after that, Priyanka Gandhi begins her journey as an elected representative of the people.
With a winning margin of more than 4.1 lakh votes, she has surpassed the tally of her brother Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad in Kerala.
Priyanka Gandhi's entry into Parliament comes at a difficult time for the party, which has been jolted by electoral defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra. It would be interesting to see if she is able give a much-needed fillip to the grand old party and help put it back on electoral track.
Often drawing comparisons with her grandmother Indira Gandhi for their similarity in looks and way of speaking, Priyanka Gandhi has been the go-to campaigner for the party since her entry into active politics and even before that when she campaigned for her mother Sonia and brother Rahul.
And more than both, she is the one who many say has the easiest touch when it comes to communicating with people, individuals and crowds, and also in articulating the party's viewpoint on a range of issues. That she is often seen with her brother, sometimes teasing, sometimes chiding and always affectionate, has added to the image of the convivial politician.
Frequently referring to her childhood, the pain of her father Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and her mother's grief, she steered the Congress' campaign during the general election, adroitly walking the tightrope between striking a familial chord and discussing national-level issues. She proved to be a strategist, orator and mass mobiliser -- all rolled into one.
Most of her speeches are akin to a conversation with the crowd, establishing a connect and giving people the impression that here was a person who was known to them, someone sharing her feelings and thoughts with them.
As star campaigner and strategiser, Priyanka Gandhi helped the Congress make impressive gains in some states as well as in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier in the year. Her campaign helped the Congress get 99 seats in the general election, up from 52 in 2019.
As the curtains came down on the 2024 general election, analysts totted up the numbers to highlight that she has proven to be the party's talisman. Priyanka Gandhi took part in 108 public meetings and roadshows. She campaigned in 16 states and a Union territory, and also addressed two party workers' conferences in Amethi and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
Priyanka Gandhi has often been projected as a possible challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi and also as a successor to Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi in the family pocket borough of Rae Bareli.
Soon after the Election Commission announced the Wayanad bypoll, the Congress declared that Priyanka Gandhi would be its candidate from the seat in Kerala. Rahul Gandhi, it decided, would retain the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh and vacate the Wayanad seat he won for the second consecutive time.
After her name was announced for the Wayanad bypoll in June, Priyanka Gandhi said, "I am not nervous at all.... I am very happy to be able to represent Wayanad. All I will say is that I will not let them feel his (Rahul Gandhi's) absence. I will work hard and try my best to make everybody happy and be a good representative."
"I have a good relationship with Rae Bareli as I worked there for 20 years and that relationship will never break," she said, adding that both she and her brother will work together in both the constituencies.
Priyanka Gandhi was made Congress general secretary in-charge of the crucial eastern Uttar Pradesh region in January 2019 and then general secretary in-charge of the entire state.
In December 2023, Priyanka Gandhi was made Congress general secretary "without a portfolio". She helped strengthen the organisation and led the party's campaign in Himachal Pradesh, where the grand old party wrested power from the BJP.
Born on January 12, 1972, Priyanka attended New Delhi's Modern School and the Convent of Jesus and Mary. She holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, and also has a master's degree in Buddhist studies.
Priyanka Gandhi is married to businessman Robert Vadra. The couple has two children -- Raihan and Miraya.
Her entry into Parliament has been long awaited by party's workers and supporters and they are hoping she will provide the booster shot the party needs in its difficult phase at the hustings going forward.
