#PollVault: On Holi, BJP Splashes Out with First List, Congress Plays Down South
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New Delhi: Thursday allowed election-addicts a day off to enjoy other highs. It was at last a slow news day: the Bharatiya Janata Party did exactly as expected, and Congress did relatively little outside the southern states.
The ruling party waited until late evening to offer the day’s major development, its first list, naming 184 candidates. This included all of the most prominent BJP faces, but it excluded one – L.K. Advani.
Meanwhile, in line with the overall picture of election readiness, the Congress released its own list of candidates – three of them.
From battlefield to pasture to abattoir
Advani was a part of the first-ever non-Congress Union cabinet, after the defeat of Indira Gandhi in 1977. He was one of the founders of the BJP in 1980, and would be the longest-serving party president, over three different periods.
In 1992, he rode the rath yatra to Ayodhya, leaving a trail of communal polarisation across north India that initiated the party’s rise to national power.
Also read: In Advani's Silence, the Sum of All Fears
In 2013, the rising prospects of the BJP made Advani a strong contender for prime minister, though he crossed swords with Narendra Modi to his own detriment. The following year, the Sangh had its first-ever majority government, the dream for which Advani had worked for over half a century – but he was left out of the cabinet and put to pasture in the BJP’s margadarshak mandal.
On Thursday, his political career received the coup de grace – Gandhinagar was passed from Advani to Modi’s most loyal officer, Amit Shah.
If 2014 game plan ain’t broke…
Meanwhile, Modi will retain Varanasi, which is freighted with saffron symbolism. Since 2014, the city has been drenched with public projects, both welcome and unwelcome, as well as with ‘social responsibility’ funds from pliable state corporations.
Other senior leaders will return to their 2014 constituencies as well – home minister Rajnath Singh to Lucknow, the versatile Nitin Gadkari to Nagpur, and Smriti Irani to Amethi, to once again face off with Rahul Gandhi, the implicit prime ministerial candidate of the Congress.
In 2014, Irani made a good showing but failed to seriously threaten Gandhi in his legacy seat – he won by a plurality of 46%. In 2019, the odds are tilted further against her. The Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance has no candidate in Amethi (an overture to a pre-poll alliance with the Congress, which came to naught). Still, she will doubtless be rewarded again for taking a stand against the Gandhi dynasty.
Other celebrity highlights included:
- Retired General V.K. Singh from Ghaziabad,
- Bollywood ‘dream girl’ and entrepreneur Hema Malini from Mathura, and
- Sports minister Rajyavardhan Rathore from Jaipur Rural.
Some predictable low-lights also return to their 2014 seats:
- Sakshi Maharaj to Unnao,
- Anant Kumar Hegde to Uttara Kannada,
- Riot-accused Sanjeev Balyan to Muzzafarnagar, where he will be challenged by the Rashtriya Lok Dal president, Ch. Ajit Singh.
The re-nomination of Balyan and others sent a signal about the BJP’s resolute support for its noisy communal provocateurs. Just on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath spoke to the press on his two-year record, claiming that not a single incident of rioting took place had taken place under his government.
On Thursday, Mayawati begged to differ.
BJP's claim that UP remain riot-free in past 2 years is farce. During the period BJP leaders & ministers remain awfully busy in lifting of heinous cases against them. And what about mob lynching etc which brought bad name to the country and ultimately Hon court had to intervene.
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) March 21, 2019
Congress hopes to rebuild Southern bastions
Much of the Congress action continued to be down south.
On Tuesday, it nominated 22 candidates from Andhra, and on Thursday, the Kerala alliance, the United Democratic Front (UDF), named its 20 candidates. Sixteen are from the national party, two from the Indian Union Muslim League, and one each for two smaller allies. Only two of the 20 are women.
Former diplomat and prolific author Shashi Tharoor returns to Thiruvananthapuram, as expected. He ended a busy day of touring with a homam at the Vlangamuri Gurumandiram Durgadevi Temple.
Offered my prayers at the Vlangamuri Gurumandiram Durgadevi Temple, which had conducted a Chandika homam earlier in the day in which the flame assumed the figure of Devi.The serenity of temples in Thiruvananthapuram is truly a balm for the soul after a chaotic day of campaigning. pic.twitter.com/TvalujBpo8
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) March 21, 2019
Only hours later, the BJP brought forth its own list. It will contest 19 of Kerala’s 20 seats, though it isn’t thought to be a serious contender. Kummanam Rajashekaran, who resigned as governor of Mizoram earlier this month, will challenge Tharoor in the state capital.
The BJP’s list of 184 candidates, released on Thursday, includes 20 from Karnataka. Shobha Karandlaje – whose Twitter feed might be one that keeps the Election Commission busy – was renominated from Udupi-Chikmagalur, along with a dozen other sitting MPs. The Congress’s first Karnataka list is expected on Friday, March 22.
Also on Thursday, Sumalatha, the wife of the late Congress leader and movie-star Ambareesh, announced that she would contest his former seat, Mandya. She will be taking on Nikhil Gowda, the scion of the Janata Dal (Secular), on long odds. In 2014, the Congress and JD(S) – which are allies this year – each won about 43% of the vote in Mandya.
The BJP have held back from running its own candidate, preferring to support Sumalatha as a gesture against the cynicism of the anti-BJP alliance.
The Congress party also named three candidates in Andhra Pradesh – from Nandyal, Vijayawada and Visakhapatham – along with 45 more candidates for the Andhra assembly polls, which will take place simultaneously on April 11.
In Tamil Nadu, movie star Kamal Haasan put out the first list from his new party, the Makkal Needhi Maiam, while leaving fans in suspense about where he will hold his own new premiere.
This article went live on March twenty-second, two thousand nineteen, at ten minutes past eight in the morning.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
