From the Urdu Press: ‘Sonia’s entry clears picture on Opp unity leadership’, ‘the personal and the political in Pawar battle’, and consistency as Rahul’s new ‘calling card’

The daily writes that Sonia has been the UPA chairperson, leading it to power in the 2004 and 2009 polls. “Sonia has experience of steering a coalition. In 2004, she proved successful against stalwarts like Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani, even though she had then spent less than 10 years in active politics,” it says. “Sonia’s opponents are now Modi and Amit Shah. She also does not have an advisor like Ahmed Patel or an ally like Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who had political sagacity. But for the 2024 battle she has Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and allies such as Nitish and Pawar as her comrades in arm.”

The editorial says that the choice of Bengaluru as the venue of the Opposition’s meetings is significant as the Congress recently trounced the BJP in the Karnataka Assembly polls. Indira Gandhi had won the bypoll from Karnataka’s Chikmagalur in 1978 to make her comeback following her Emergency debacle, it notes, adding that Sonia had also made her electoral debut from Ballari in 1999. Bihar is now ruled by the Mahagathbandhan comprising the JD(U), RJD and Congress, among others. “Sonia has warm relations with top Opposition leaders cutting across party lines — from Lalu to Pawar. She might have scaled down her political engagements, but she still has the political heft and stature,” the edit states. The Opposition conclave might come up with a name for the grouping besides firming up their strategies and roadmap for the 2024 grand battle, it adds.

URDU TIMES

Referring to the allocation of portfolios in Maharashtra Friday to the nine NCP ministers led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who had joined the Eknath Shinde Sena-BJP government on July 2 after splitting the Sharad Pawar-headed NCP, the Mumbai-based Urdu Times, in its leader on July 15, says the three allies now have broadly equal number of ministerial berths, noting that Ajit has landed the crucial Finance and Planning portfolio. The editorial points out that CM Shinde carried out the portfolio reallocation exercise soon after Ajit travelled to Delhi to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “The Opposition, including the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction, targeted Ajit for his Delhi visit, charging that he has bowed before the Delhi Durbar,” it says, adding that Ajit however managed to clinch a key portfolio for himself, which was wrested from senior BJP leader and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

The daily writes that there is discontent in the Shinde Sena camp over the allocation of Finance portfolio to Ajit. “Ajit was also Deputy CM and Finance Minister in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by CM Uddhav. And the Shinde faction, which rebelled against the Uddhav Sena that led to the MVA government’s collapse, has maintained that Ajit then used to give funds only to NCP legislators while ignoring the Sena MLAs — and that he would do the same now,” it states.

Close on the heels of the portfolio allocation, Ajit visited his aunt Pratibha Pawar, wife of Sharad Pawar, at their residence, “Silver Oak”, in Mumbai after she was discharged from a hospital following a surgery, the editorial says. “This makes it clear that Pawars’ battle (for control over the NCP) is not personal but political,” it says. On the other hand, there seems to be unease among the Shinde Sena rebels, whom Uddhav have labelled as “traitors” before the public. “The Shinde camp will have to wait for the Supreme Court order now,” the edit says, referring to the Uddhav Sena’s petitions seeking disqualification of Shinde and his MLAs.

INQUILAB

Highlighting Rahul Gandhi’s continuing bids for revamping his image, the New Delhi edition of Inquilab, in its editorial on July 11, points out that the Congress leader recently spent a day with farmers in their field in a village in Haryana’s Sonipat district, where he was seen working with them, planting paddy saplings and ploughing the farmland with a tractor. “Although this is not a new approach that Rahul has adopted — he had tried to reach out to people in their settings earlier too, taking train rides with commuters, sharing a meal with a Dalit family in their home — but he has now been doing it consistently,” it states. Rahul is thus trying to directly connect with people from different walks of life by spending time with them and conversing or working with them, thereby making an outreach to large sections of communities, it says.

While campaigning in the Karnataka Assembly polls Rahul took a pillion ride with a delivery agent and interacted with gig workers and bus passengers, with the daily saying that subs equently he went out to interact with students in Delhi. Later, he again took a truck ride to Chandigarh and had a conversation with the truck driver about their lives and working conditions. A few days ago, Rahul reached the national capital’s Karol Bagh area to meet mechanics to listen to their stories, and also lent a hand in fixing a bike there. “Rahul is continuing in this innovative way with this public outreach. It seems he wants to make this approach his new calling card,” the editorial says.

The daily writes that some might say that Rahul got the idea for trying this new approach from his Bharat Jodo Yatra during which he used to interact with many people every day. “Some might also argue that given the point that a cash-strapped Congress could not undertake a massive publicity blitz Rahul has taken the route of these small, informal interactions with people from different segments of society for his publicity. This might not be unfounded. But Rahul is warmly approaching the underprivileged and marginalised people to win their hearts,” it states, adding that his “mohabbat ki dukaan” seems to be in place now. This was also seen during his visit to the strife-torn Manipur, when Rahul met the affected people there, the edit adds.