By Sidharth Mishra

As one approaches the ‘finally made operational’ Signature Bridge from the trans-Yamuna area on a bumpy, ill-maintained road, on the left side is the premises of Delhi Government-run Industrial Training Institute (ITI). It was here two decades ago that Congress leader Sheila Dikshit had first made her presence felt in politics of Delhi.

In the winter of 1998 when the polls were held for 12th Lok Sabha, a political leader from Uttar Pradesh, unknown to the rough and tumble and more importantly machinations of the politics of the national Capital, named Sheila Dikshit was pitted against BJP strongman Lal Bihari Tiwari from the East Delhi seat.

Tiwari, a Minister in the Madanlal Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma governments, was party’s Poorvanchal face as the voters from the region had started to make their presence felt in the national Capital. He had won the by-election from the seat about a year back by 1.5 lakh votes. Dikshit in addition to Tiwari, also had to counter the ‘influence’ of sidelined Delhi strongman HKL Bhagat.

By Sidharth Mishra

Elections in India, and the associated campaigns have several repercussions. The poll curry in this country is made of several and many a times unusual condiments. Thus, Battle of Lok Sabha’2019 has thrown many interesting contests and their allegorical interpretation.

One such interesting battle is being fought in the northern Bihar town of Begusarai. The polling in Begusarai would be in the fourth phase on April 29. Thus, the month-long political fisticuff is in the offing.

Bihar is a political state, its often stated. This point gets reiterated further from the fact that of all the contests being held across the 40 seats in the state, its Begusarai which has come to garner all the attention. Despite the state capital’s prestigious seat of Patna City having Bollywood star Shatrughan Sinha and Modi government’s heavyweight minister Ravi Shankar Prasad being locked in a classic battle, it’s Begusarai which is garnering all the attention.

By Sidharth Mishra

No political move in India is driven without a caste consideration. Similarly, no analysis of an initiative, administrative, social or political is complete without putting it through the prism of caste. Social scientists, known for their overt anti-BJP bias, have once again gone to town ridiculing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push, this time for appearing in ‘chowkidar avtar’ in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

 These social analysts chosen the oft repeated line of upper caste and backward caste divide. Identifying the rich with the upper castes, they have tried to paint the initiative as mocking at the Dalit and other backward caste communities. In their premise they have concluded that the poor lower castes have been reduced to playing doormats for the upper caste rich.

By Sidharth Mishra

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has released its campaign song for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, which focusses on the statehood for the national Capital. This song makes amply clear that AAP supreme leader Mr Arvind Kejriwal has for now shelved his national aspirations and wants to focus just on Delhi. Given the abysmal performance of party in assembly polls in several states, Kejriwal knows that political survival is call of the hour.

In pursuance of this goal, Kejriwal has set an agenda which he hopes would make him reap rich political harvest. It is difficult to believe that Arvind Kejriwal, is asking for full statehood without understanding that its grant is only next to impossible.

By Sidharth Mishra

Given the vigour with which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is pursuing for an alliance with the Congress in Delhi, one may finally witness some kind of an arrangement if not an alliance between the two parties. During her sojourn in the Capital recently for an opposition dharna recently, Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banrejee had said that AAP wanted to have an alliance but the Congress was still to respond.

In one last ditch attempt, AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal even rushed to Puducherry to join a solidarity show with Congress chief minister V Narayanasamy against Lieutenant Governor of the union territory, Kiran Bedi. Indeed, whole lot of water has flowed in the Yamuna since 2011-12, when Kejriwal in company with Kiran Bedi had filed a corruption complaint against Manmohan Singh-led government, where Narayanasamy was an important Minister.

By Sidharth Mishra

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee doesn’t seem to be much enamoured by the what the newspapers in the national Capital have to say about a possible alliance between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Speaking at the rally of Opposition parties at her bastion in Kolkata last Saturday, Banerjee said, “Hum saath ladega aur Dilli mein saatho seat jitega (We shall fight together and win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital).”

While the Trinamool Congress leader said this, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal heard her in rapt attention. Earlier during his own turn to address the rally, Kejriwal remained focused on spewing venom on the BJP. This was less than 24-hous after the AAP had declared in the national Capital that it would contest all seven seats in Delhi on its own blaming the Congress of being arrogant.

By Sidharth Mishra

On Thursday, the Congress high command appointed veteran leader Sheila Dikshit as its Delhi unit president for the second time. The last time she was nominated to this post was more than two decades back in the summer of 1998.

 The situation for the party, however, is not very different from what it was then with the BJP on an ascendance and the minority voters harbouring a distrust for the Congress following the demolition of the Babri Masjid with PV Narasimha Rao at the helm as the Prime Minister. This had led to a rout of the party in the national Capital in the 1991, 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha polls, 1993 assembly polls and 1997 municipal polls.

By Sidharth Mishra

Ajay Maken has resigned, for the second time in past six months, as the president of Delhi Congress. Former chief minister Sheila Dikshit is back in Delhi from France, having convalesced from a heart ailment. In the past few weeks she has expressed the view that she wasn’t averse to leading the party once again in the national Capital. This should be the ideal situation for passing the baton back to Dikshit.

However, there are forces within the Congress party who may not be very keen on having Dikshit back lest she become an impediment in their ‘Pan-India’ plans of alliance with the regional forces. The appointment of the next president of Delhi Congress is umbilically connected to the party’s strategy for the Lok Sabha polls in the summer of 2019. The next president of Delhi Congress who would have to bear the burden of leading or rejecting an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).