The exit polls are out and have predicted a return of the Yogi government in the U.P. This is the most important outcome of the five states that have faced the polls. The next one of interest is in Goa, where the PM aspirant Mamata Banerjee’s AITC has contested, hoping her Trinamool party’s support could become the deciding factor in forming the State government. However, that seems going for a spin if psephologists are to be believed.
The dashed hopes of Didi’s miracle may be felt only within West Bengal and that too in her party circles. None took her too seriously as a force outside the boundaries of West Bengal, a must for her way ahead in the national political scenario. Besides Goa, Didi went to Lucknow and did a campaign supporting Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.
The BJP is progressing steadily, decimating the Congress party, which may win in single digits from a 403 seat U.P. Assembly. Congress is likely to face a bloody defeat in Punjab, and only in Goa, it may have a sizeable tally. However, the small State has only an insignificant 40 seats. The Gandhi family has exhausted their arsenal of family faces, trying out the last, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
It is not enough that the granddaughter of Indira poses like her grandmother or dresses like her. The Indian voters are getting cleverer amid questions of their Gandhi credentials. It is now time for Sonia Gandhi to realize and pave the way for a complete overhaul of the INC, sending Rahul, Sonia, Robert Vadra and her children away from Indian politics. No leadership has been more insensitive to their party’s repeated losses and decimation like the Gandhi clan.
In the many years from 2014, Congress had opportunities to galvanize the opposition, which they preferred to forego, hanging on their bloated ego. Rahul doubts the Indian army or the Balakot strikes, which has cost him dearly, much like his unfounded Rafale accusations. The circus called Congress must end this show if they plan to put up a better show in the future.
I have never considered Didi’s party an all India one for many reasons. Bengal is like a vast village; people are happy with the status quo and are contemptuous of any growth beyond their State. The increased subsidy in multifarious schemes is a telltale affair of the travails of the jobless youths in the State. The U.P. BJP has picked a few points from Didi to garner the women voters with freebies like gas and toilets, which will reap a rich harvest of votes.
The poll outcome, in my guess, will augur better for West Bengal, Didi turning towards better governance to make her State a model one. The disgrace of poll debacles is part of the game but seem to erase Mamata’s invincibility. Mamata Banerjee must henceforth venture beyond Bengal only boots away those inexperienced from her inner circle, who sold her impossible dreams and led her into Goa, Punjab and U.P. without proper ground work.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
