"One caucus of Congress party wanted to hijack Opposition alliance leadership,"
says K C Tyagi of JD-U
"The caucus of Congress party wanted to steal away the opposition alliance leadership. On Dec 19, 2023 meeting in Delhi under a conspiracy Mallikarjun Kharge's name was mooted as chairman of the alliance. Prior to that in Mumbai meet it was decided that no one will be projected as a leader of the alliance"-- K C Tyagi, JD-U.
"All non Congress regional parties are essentially anti-Congress; came up struggling against the Congress. But it is true that the Congress is passing through a phase of basic survival problem...its existential crisis. In 2014 and 2019, the Congress even did not get one tenth number in Lok Sabha and hence did not get formal recognition as Leader of the Opposition".
But, he said, "...the same Congress wants to finish off the regional satraps and their parties across various parts of India. Either the Congress is underestimating the electoral strength of BJP, or they do not know the ground reality".
"The BJP is always in touch with ground reality. They have enough cadres and resources and PM Modi is a mass-based very popular leader. To fight these, no party in the opposition has adequate strength to take on the BJP".
So, the message is clear -- if you cannot defeat Modi, it is better to join him.
K C Tyagi also claimed that Congress had made it categorical that in Haryana Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Telengana, Karnataka there will be no alliance.
"However, when it came to other states, they started asking share in regional party-stronghold states in a very disproportionate manner. The Congress now has one MP from UP and Bihar and two from Bengal...similarly, they hardly exist in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, but their demands were unjustified for more seats in these states".
"We regret, but we feel relieved that the founder of the Opposition alliance, Nitish Kuma, the one who hosted the first meeting of opposition leaders in Patna and our party have been compelled to dissociate ourselves from this Opposition alliance".
Much importantly, JD-U leader K C Tyagi said -- "The Congress was almost 'achhut ...isolated and (almost faced political untouchability). The AAP, Trinamool Cingress, Samajwadi, BRS of K C Chandrasekhar Rao ...all wanted anti-BJP and anti-Congress alliance. But it was only Nitish who worked hard to bring in Congress in the united opposition camp".
"It is us we tied to revive the Congress an gave them a national acceptability," he added. "Mr KCR even visited Patna and urged Nitish Kumar to keep Congress away, but we insisted that the Congress should be part of the alliance".
No one knows better than Narendra Modi to score brownie points via-a-vis his political opponents and the so-called 'Sickular establishment'.
Mr Modi is not only a shrewd political operator; he is a people's leader. Even if he talks something jocularly there will be a research and pre-assessment of the public mood. We were witness to his remarks on Muslims' large families -- "Hum panch Hamare pachees" one-liner in 2002. Modi had ridiculed law allowing Muslims to have four wives !
The episode hit headlines and even a few police officials were 'transferred out'; but to voters it had a magical appeal.
On Jan 22, 2024, PM said at Ayodhya... "Aag lag jaegi" taking a jibe at those who had said that if there is Temple construction, there would be violence in the country.
"Those who say such things, do not know India," he said.
In 2019 Mani Shankar Aiyar gave him 'Chae wala' tag and Modi started meeting people in the name of 'Chae pe charcha'. This was a game-changer.
Indian intellectuals love to think like 'convent educated' ones. I say this notwithstanding my own Don Bosco (St Anthony's background in Shillong); and often we fail to gauge the mood how the core Hindu voters in slums and villages are thinking.
Many years back, I had quizzed Late Vamuzo why he thought 'BJP has a future' in India. He had attended the BJP meeting in Mumbai. L K Advani had honoured him with a Kashmiri shawl. Vamuzo's flamboyant response was, "If as a Naga or a Mizo, we keep thinking our history is different and unique and those in jungles still dream that things will be in our favour one-day....why we generally forget that Hindu voters also think with pride that they had a glorious past in India and Muslim rulers ill-treated them".
This brings one to renaming of roads and railway stations. While media have lampooned such moves, there are an overwhelming section of Indian voters who are happy at these changes.
They are the BJP voters.
ends
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