Recently, Baba Ramdev spiced up the electoral battle in Rae Bareli by suggesting firebrand Hindutva leader Uma Bharati as probable candidate against Sonia Gandhi. BJP leaders indicated that actress turned politician Smriti Irani could be fielded against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. While Uma is apparently expecting the party to “compensate” her for taking on Sonia, Irani is understood to be willing to throw her hat into the electoral ring. The BJP had been toying with some big names as probable candidate, but hasn’t been able to finalise on it. It proposed former Army Chief General (retd) VK Singh to take on Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli but he declined. The last time BJP polled over one lakh vote was in the 2006 by-election, necessitated following Sonia’s resignation after the office of profit row. Then, BJP’s Vinay Katiyar, another face of the Temple movement, polled 1,61,290 votes. Still, he lost by a margin of over 2.5 lakh votes. The BJP candidate stood fourth in 2004 and third (in the absence of a Samajwadi Party candidate) in 2009. Similarly, the BJP tried to woo ‘sulking’ Sultanpur MP Sanjay Singh – who belongs to the royal family from Amethi – with the idea of fielding him against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. The Congress though managed to retain him by accommodating him in the Rajya Sabha from Assam and fielding his wife Amita Singh against Varun Gandhi in Sultanpur. BJP set at rest speculation that Uma Bharti could be fielded against Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli after the firebrand leader asserted that she “cannot leave my Jhansi” from where she has already been nominated. BJP doesn’t have strong contenders, who can guarantee the win for the party. How BJP managed to distribute tickets is hush hush, but still there are lots of speculations too.
On the other hand, after declaring his candidature from Varanasi, Kejriwal versus Modi fight was given a new turn and Varanasi became most talked about constituency. India is setting an example as a great country where someone like Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal is been seriously considered as a potential prime ministerial candidate though they possess zero track record or experience. Let’s keep Arvind Kejriwal aside, look at the party’s candidates as a whole, Titaliya Devi (in Jamui, Jharkhand – A Nobel Peace Nominee and daily wager), Medha Patkar, HS Phoolka (Advocate fighting for the justice from 30 years in 1984 anti Sikh riots), Anita Pratap and others. Since the political party has solicited advice from public for information of probity and clean image on their candidates. They must be trying their tooth and nail to make this attempt of AAP a reality in India; else Congress and BJP will keep doing their politics of convenience as ever. BJP striked a deal with Paswan and gave seat to junior Paswan from Jamui. Is this the kind of politics we want to see in India?
Modi is confident because he has seen the result of development model. However, Kejriwal exposed this Gujarat Development Model of BJP and Modi. Kejriwal says there is no such development taken place in Gujarat. Kejriwal’s only agenda is eradication of corruption but he has no proper plan as to how he is going to implement it. His idea of contesting against Modi from Varanasi constituency is to defeat him by splitting the votes. The result will be neither the development model nor will the corruption be removed. If we look at the history then from thousands of years we are seeing that to defeat one king, the enemy king asks for the help of another king and after snatching the kingdom from the first king, they both fight for that kingdom. Sometimes, we have to learn from history. India wants leaders who can take this country on development path and change the life of the citizens of the nation. India needs a leader who can take bold decisions without hesitation. Coalition politics should be stopped. People of India do not want to live in a nation which remains ”DEVELOPING” for another 60 years. They want to live in developed nation. People of India want a political institution which has clearly articulated position on constitution, territorial integrity of the nation and about those who challenge the very idea of democracy which is a prized legacy achieved by sacrifice of nation’s blood. On a wider perspective, Kejriwal may not be able to bring any change in the country. He has proved himself to be incapable of implementing firm decisions. He came to power in Delhi with a pledge to change the system and resigned blaming the system. Arvind Kejriwal is campaigning in Varanasi because Modi is trying his fate from this holy city. Kejriwal has no connection with Varanasi or its people and is even not interested. Varanasi is the oldest city in the world. Kejriwal is a mushroom which sprang up suddenly after the rain of Anna’s movement against corruption. If he has not participated in Anna’s dharna and fast, he would have been the exact common man and not a special common man heading a common man’s party. We have seen several such crusaders right from Jayaprakash Narayan, Chandrasekar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, V P Singh, etc. Yet, there is no revolution in India and the system and politics remain the same. We Indians cannot forget and forego our slave mentality. We elect Kings and Queens for a short period and we accept whatever they do without any refusal.
Modi enshrined to the throne of Chief Minister when the entire machinery failed in the state, way back in 2002. Today also BJP as a party has limited dreams and Modi has accepted the challenge to take it to power. Are we a punching bag between these two parties? AAP is becoming a catalyst for political churning in the history of Indian democracy and Varanasi represents the battlefield. More and more people of the country, particularly youth is disenchanted with corrupt, communal and criminal politics played by BJP and Congress. All the rational and sincere people should come in support of this new type of politics. India requires it on urgent basis. BJP seems to portray its most conservative and orthodox nature in this changing time when it fails to take a cue from honourable Supreme Court recently issued guidelines to Election Commission and political parties not to fray a candidate from two constituencies. It makes me wonder, how the BJP will react if some other wave stands at Vadodara and Modi wave goes for the next haywire toss of its life.
People of Varanasi will vote for someone who they think will be good for India and who can do their job. India requires real skilled person to solve those problems. However, here the million dollar question is that, who will make it to power?
