Cong crisis? What’s new
BJP keeps sharpening its strategy. Congress fails to spot dissent before it blows up
Cross-voting by 6 Congress MLAs in Rajya Sabha election for Himachal’s single seat should not have triggered the uproar it did. Party whips in assembly do not extend to RS elections. So, RS cross-voting – technically – doesn’t impact assembly. Qualifying word being ‘technically’.
K’taka model | Post cross-voting, disaffection within governing party in Himachal exploded with dissenting MLAs demanding CM Sukhu’s scalp. Sukhu, with 40 MLAs and three Independents, would’ve likely survived a confidence vote in the 68-member assembly had it come to pass yesterday but that’s not at issue here. The issue is managing factions. Sukhu could take a leaf out of Karnataka, where rivalries were kept aside for RS polls. Even a BJP MLA cross-voted for Congress’s nominee, and another abstained.
Dukhi with Sukhu | Dissenters’ grudge is CM’s ‘working style’ and govt failing to provide jobs. It’s rare for MLAs to throw their own govt under the bus on such matters. But it is the dissenter-in-chief in Himachal Congress who was the most miffed. Vikramaditya Singh, son of former CM Virbhadra Singh and current Congress state head Pratibha Singh, said he felt ‘humiliated’ that his grievance was not ‘political’, that his dissent was ‘an emotional thing for a son’. Apparently, what pained him was that state govt has so far failed to install the late Virbhadra’s statue.
Takeaways | One, Congress is no stranger to factional mutinies but it fails to spot them before they blow up. Two, this playbook is now familiar – similar scenes have played out in other states; BJP will sniff out the smallest chink in opposition’s armour. Three, Jairam Ramesh’s words, ‘people’s mandate needs to be respected’, sound like they belong to a fairy tale. Four, Sukhu is fighting – despite the chaos, assembly passed the state budget, and he claimed BJP MLAs are in touch with him. How it will all turn out is hard to predict. What’s certain is that there are jitters across Congress state units.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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