Soroor Ahmed | Clarion India
AFTER Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, it is now Chhattisgarh – -another state where the present ruling party came to power after a landslide victory — which is passing through political uncertainty.
However, the situation of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Chhattisgarh is not similar to that of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh or even Rajasthan. In these four states either the BJP or the Congress had won the election with thumping majority yet they are witnessing political instability. In the Assembly election held in February-March 2017, the BJP won 57 out of 70 seats in Uttarakhand and in Uttar Pradesh the saffron-led alliance walked away with 325 out of 403 seats. In contrast in the election held in Punjab around the same time the Congress won 77 out of 117 seats. What was surprising was that the then ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance was relegated to the third place winning just 18 seats. It was the fledging Aam Aadmi Party which emerged as runners up with victory in 20 constituencies.
In Chhattisgarh which went to poll in December 2018, the Congress has 70 MLAs in the House of 90. If it is Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu versus chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab, it is his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel who is being challenged by his health minister T S Singh Deo. The latter is claiming that he should be allowed to become the chief minister under the formula of ruling for two-anda-half-years each brokered by the party leadership, between him and Baghel.
In Punjab, the Congress can still take a sigh of relief as the four decades old SAD-BJP alliance has collapsed after the passage of the three farm laws last year. The SAD was compelled to form an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party which otherwise is fighting for survival in UP.
It is being observed that after getting a brute majority, the leaders and rank and file of any party become over-confident, ambitious and reckless. So, it does not need any opposition to destroy, but collapses under its own weight.
Though this is a phenomenon which had its impact on all the parties the media is of course much more critical in flaying the Congress leadership and accusing it of remaining a mute spectator. The Press, in general, is underplaying the crisis in the BJP though it is facing even bigger challenge in Uttarakhand and Karnataka and even in Uttar Pradesh where till now chief minister Yogi Adityanath has not yet acceded all the demands of the central leadership — the most important one was the call for expansion of the cabinet and filling it with those who are considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
