Inside out!

Samajwadi Party consumed by a death wish

With barely eight months to go for the elections to the Uttar Pradesh assembly the ruling Samajwadi Party seems to be consumed by a death wish.

It won an absolute majority in the 403 member assembly in the most populated state of the country in 2012 replacing Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party, who had warned the people and the media that they would start missing her very soon.

Interestingly, the Yadav clan is not too bothered about the permanently deteriorating law and order situation because it is more important for them to have their own men in position of power than checking their performance.They can always blame the BJP for creating a communal cauldron to suit their secret agenda for the breakdown of law and order. This polarisation helps both the SP and the BJP.

What seems to have rattled them are reports of Mayawati taking a lead over them in all the pre poll surveys conducted by TV channels.

Having brought the family feud on the streets with uncles, brothers, outsiders insiders labels turning it into a family soap that believes in washing its dirty linen in public, the young Akhilesh Yadav is now going around giving interviews to TV channels to prove that even though he is father's obedient son he does have a mind of his own.

But with Azam Khan and Amar Singh and Ram Gopal Yadav in key positions he would have a hard time convincing the hugely politically conscious public of the state that distributing laptops to the youths "which have been programmed to show the pictures of Netaji and myself on opening" as he said with a glint of happiness in a widely telecast interview and creating the Express Highway will be able to counter the anti-incumbency factor staring him in the face.

Amit Shah, who has the biggest challenge of his career at hand to pull out a rabbit without a credible face to project as CM is working silently for a change.

The only person who has bigger stakes than him in the UP elections is magic man Prashant Kishor who has persuaded Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to embark on a much publicised Kisaan Yatra to meet and eat with farmers.

His strategy seems to be to work up sufficient numbers for the Congress to make it relevant in the post 2017 scenario to cobble up a coalition with either the BSP or the SP to prevent the BJP from occupying the Chief Minister's seat in Lucknow.

Harking back to Shah Commission days

The way the Lt.Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung has started going hammer and tongs after the MLAs of Kejriwal reminds old timers of the persecution of Indira Gandhi by the Shah Commission during the Janata Party regime.

Luckily, the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has 67 MLAs and it would need the disqualification or jailing (whichever comes earlier)of at least 34 MLAs to reduce the Delhi govt to a minority.

As of now It would appear that the police and the judiciary in Delhi are at logger heads on the whimsical cases being lodged against the AAP because the police arrests them in full public view and the courts release them instantly. One is only waiting for a sharp rap on the knuckles from the Delhi High Court to the Centre on this issue.

This is the same government that had received very vital and substantial support from the judiciary and the media when it had launched the odd even scheme in Delhi the first time.

The list of MLAs being arrested and the charges against most of them are so flimsy that a silent ground swell of sympathy among their core supporters is building up.

An indication of the tide turning against this persecution are the comments of former colleague turned bitter enemy Yogendra Yadav on the social media when the government charged Swati Maliwal of DCW of corruption.The core supporters of BJP only remember that she is related to Kejriwal. They do not follow her daily routine or her role as the saviour of distressed and traumatised women and children in Delhi.

The LG seems to have crossed the Lakshman Rekha when he summoned the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia from Finland where he had gone for a study tour on education. It is no secret that among the ministers of Kejriwal it is Sisodia who stands for efficiency and clarity.This action of Najeeb will certainly not go down well and will give Kejriwal another opportunity to protest against political witch hunting.

Results of Punjab and Goa assembly elections will show which way the wind blows.