Opinion Sending the wrong message
When Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik learnt that BJP leader L.K. Advani had sent newspaper editor and nominated Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra....
When Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik learnt that BJP leader L.K. Advani had sent newspaper editor and nominated Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra as the emissary for negotiating seat sharing,any little hope of reconciliation with the BJP ended. Patnaik felt that the BJP did not take its alliance with the BJD very seriously else they would not have sent a lightweight who is not even a party functionary. BJD sources point out that Arun Jaitley is the negotiator for talks over seat sharing in Bihar with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Ravi Shankar Prasad deals with AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu. Even the choice of BJPs general secretary for Orissa,Vinay Katiyar,is odd. Katiyar,an ardent supporter of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal,is hardly on the same wavelength as Patnaik.
Incidentally,at least four of the trusted advisers in Advanis inner circle are journalists. Full timer party workers at the BJP headquarters on Ashoka Road question the wisdom of relying on the advice and services of those whose core business is not politics.
Waiting for the diagnosis
Dr Ramadosss PMK which was all set to break ties with the UPA and align with Jayalalithaas alliance in Tamil Nadu,seems to have developed cold feet after a lengthy meeting recently between Congress political secretary Ahmed Patel and Anbumani Ramadoss. A sign of the change of heart was seen when the senior Ramadoss was not at hand to offer Jayalalithaa a glass of juice after she called off her hunger fast in Chennai in support of Tamil victims in Sri Lanka. In Delhi,the PMO has allowed the health ministers writ to prevail in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. A highly regarded cardiac surgeon of AIIMS,A.K. Bisoi,was suspended on frivolous charges because he was considered close to former director P. Venugopal. Anbumani Ramadoss has also pushed through the appointment of R.C. Deka as director,even after the model code of conduct has come into force.
The PMKs Vaniyar supporters account for 12 to 15 per cent of the voters in the state and Jayalalithaa will be badly hit if she loses this valuable alliance. The PMK is openly hostile towards the DMK and even in the recent Thirumangalam assembly by-election the PMK remained neutral.
Another party circuit
Rahul Gandhis political instincts are sharper than most give him credit for. The Left is patting itself on the back for having succeeded in getting Naveen Patnaik to dump the NDA and is counting on him as a potential member of the Third Front. In fact,a lot of the credit for the split really goes to Rahul Gandhi. Patnaiks lieutenant in Delhi is Baijayant (Jay) Panda,a good friend of Rahul and part of the same party circuit. Panda,a sophisticated businessman,has often commented that the BJD was unfortunately keeping the wrong company. Earlier,it was at Rahuls insistence that the National Conference agreed to replace Farooq Abdullah with Rahuls friend Omar as its chief ministerial nominee.
Mutual no-trust
That the Congress-SP negotiations over seat sharing in Uttar Pradesh have broken down is hardly surprising,SP general secretary Amar Singh had from the beginning adopted a bullying and hectoring tone. The disharmony is not really just about seat allotments. The SP has not forgiven the Congress for breaking its word. When it agreed to support Dr Manmohan Singh in the trust vote it was understood that in return all the disproportionate assets cases filed by the CBI against Mulayam Singh and his family members would be dropped. The Congress did not keep its word.
Goofing up
Whoever drafted the BJPs press release explaining the breakdown of ties between the party and the BJD in Orissa got his facts badly mixed up. The statement cited as evidence of close cooperation between the BJP and the BJD in the past,the excellent coordination between the Vajpayee government at the Centre and the state government in the aftermath of the Orissa cyclone. Thanks to which the damage was contained, the statement said. Actually the chief minister during the cyclone was not Naveen Patnaik,but the Congresss Giridhar Gomango. And far from containing the damage,the state government was accused by the BJP and the BJD of badly mismanaging disaster relief.
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