Amritsar - No cakewalk for Jaitley

Varanasi and Amritsar are both the holiest places for the Hindus and the Sikhs. And, the BJP has fielded its two most important leaders from both cities, Mr. Narendra Modi from the former and Mr. Arun Jaitley from the latter. Enough has been said and talked about Mr. Modi's Varanasi stint and undoubtedly one can term as it a safe seat for him even though he is facing Arvind Kejriwal from Varanasi who defeated Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit in the Delhi Assembly polls (Sheila was facing triple anti-incumbency and the state of Congress at national level was bad). Here I am going to talk about Mr. Jaitley's contest from the City of Golden Temple 'Amritsar'.

Mr. Jaitley, a politician cum lawyer and the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha is described as a calm, intellectual and a person with amazing interaction skills. One can take account of his management skills from the sheer fact that it was this person responsible for making BJP win in Gujarat in 2002, MP in 2003, Karnataka in 2008 and has been a face saver of the party at many more instances.  He was the President of the popular Delhi University Students Union during his days as a student in the Law College. But, since he came into national level politics what has always eluded him is a Lok Sabha berth. He has always been representing BJP from the Rajya Sabha.

It is an undebatable fact that if NDA comes to power Mr. Jaitley will be holding a key position in the cabinet (talks of being the Finance Minister) owing to his closeness with Mr. Modi and his contribution to the party. So, the party's selection board this time decided to field Jaitley in the Lok Sabha polls to have an elected leader lead an important portfolio and here is when Amritsar comes into the scene.

Jaitley's nomination to contest from Amritsar was welcomed wholeheartedly by the Punjab BJP wing and the Shiromani Akali Dal leaders. Mr. Prakash Singh Badal, went on to say that Mr. Jaitley would be the Deputy Prime Minister of India in the next government. Amritsar was considered a safe seat for Mr. Jaitley until the Congress (under very high drama) announced the previous Punjab CM, Captain Amarinder Singh as its nominee from Amritsar. And since then it has been more or less a battle of the equals from Amritsar.



Congress by nominating Captain has not just confined Jaitley to Amritsar but has also cast shadows on his electoral prospects owing to Jaitley's lack of mass appeal since it is his first Lok Sabha election. Added to this was another worrying fact that elections in Punjab are to be held on April 30th giving ample time to Captain to gain ground against Jaitley.

A seat that appeared too secure suddenly started looking as a mistake. The factors working against Mr. Jaitley are many but the biggest one has been the anti-incumbency being faced by the BJP and SAD candidates in Punjab against the ruling alliance. Elements in the ruling party have been accused of indulging in drug rackets leading to a drug menace in Punjab. The business interests of the Chief Minister and his relatives have alarmed the residents of Punjab. A near to total monopoly over private transport, cable networks and sky rocketing prices of some essential building materials have cast doubts on the ways and means by which the CM has expanded his business exponentially.

Drug menace has severely tarnished the image of SAD lead
government in Punjab

The Badals on the other hand have offered their full support to Jaitley and it is them who can't afford a lose for Jaitley given the impact on their prestige of such an eventuality. Mr. Bikramjit Singh Majithia, brother-in-law of the Deputy CM Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal has been assigned the duty of managing the Amritsar seat. It is to be kept in mind that the same Majithia was responsible for managing a major chunk of seats during the Punjab Assembly elections of 2012 and giving a a positive result to the Badals on these seats.

Bikramjit Singh Majithia, an able and shrewd administrator

Amrinder Singh's recent comments giving a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler an accused in the 1984 riot's in which around 8000 Sikhs across India were butchered in broad daylight have not been taken in a good taste by the Sikh community. Plus disclosure of his hidden foreign bank accounts by Mr. Subramanian Swamy has stopped Amrinder from declaring it a definite victory for him from Amritsar.

Narendra Modi's rally in Amritsar on April 25th which witnessed brother of
PM Manmohan Singh joining BJP

What happens in Amritsar is truly unpredictable. The city goes to polls on April 30th and is the most watched constituency after Varanasi. A loss for Jaitley won't effect his Ministerial berth (he is already a Rajya Sabha member). Mr. Modi's much anticipated visit to Amritsar on April 25th seemed to have a major effect on the people seeing the massive gathering on the rally. Would this massive gathering convert into a BJP wave and secure the holy city seat for Mr. Jaitley will be finally clear on May 16th.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday Mood: Haircut in times of lockdown - Why an expert is required!

Since the lockdown was announced people have often complained of not being able to remember what day of the week it is! Our Sunday Mood article reminds you that another week has passed and it's a Sunday yet again! The past week can be termed as one of the most turbulent for the mutual fund industry with a leading AMC shutting its debt funds virtually trapping Rs. 30,000 crores of investor money. But, our topic of discussion today is not anywhere related to the debt market or the financial haircuts that banks and financial institutions take on their loans! Enough of that discussion has happened in the week that has passed by over phones, conference calls & Zoom conferences. Lockdown has also brought in another type of problem for men which is the inability to get a haircut! With the Home Ministry quashing the hopes on 25th April of letting salons open the Indian men realized that it is still days for them to get their much-awaited haircut. But here was me, not ready to be bo
Read more

The ultimate money making trick

Image
Let's start with a small exercise. Let's list down all our expenses on a monthly basis from January 2020 till July 2020. You may not have a ready record but you can still note down your credit card dues every month. Also, from your bank account statement, you can get a rough idea of inflows and outflows every month. The result should look somewhat as described below. Have you done your charting? Are you surprised? You already knew that you are spending far less than what was your average expenditure during the pre-lockdown phase, but you will realize the quantum of fall only by performing this exercise. In the real-life example presented in the table above, the person was able to curtail expenses by more than 50% during the lockdown. Even post-lockdown the expenses are down around 20% from average despite the fact that impulse spending has increased due to the long halt on spending. A few questions that one may ask oneself based on the exercise are: What is the major portion of
Read more

Book Review: One Life is Not Enough - K. Natwar Singh

Image
Natwar Singh's autobiography is one piece which gives us an account of the history of India back from the times when princely states reigned in the country till the present day democratic set up. A highly successful IFS officer Natwar Singh describes his diplomatic career in a refined form picking up beads from the thread of memory line and presenting all major events in his 31 year old diplomatic career starting from 1953. A good judge of personality Natwar Singh gives a personality account of most of the figures that he talks about in his autobiography using metaphors and words that suit the underlying person the most. His descriptions of literary figures like E.M. Forster, R.K. Narayan, Ahmad Ali, Santha Ram Rao and many others leaves little to imagination with regards to the literary skill of these figures and their close association with Mr. Singh. With regards to political figures Natwar Singh gives a fair picture of each personality whom he encountered during his l
Read more