Congress caught napping; BJP goes for ‘upper’ edge in Rajya Sabha polls

Congress has been caught napping once again as the ruling BJP moved ahead with its new avatar of Operation Lotus at ''upper" level throwing the Rajya Sabha election plans of the main opposition party haywire.

The Congress ‘sleep’ act is shocking happening in states which it either won recently halted BJP’s forward progress. Within years, the party finds itself in disarray here.

Within three months eight of Congress MLAs in Gujarat, a state in which it had not let the BJP cross the double-digit mark (99) in 2017 assembly polls, have deserted it and now may help the BJP win a third Rajya Sabha seat from the state where according to its strength it could have won just two.

In Gujarat Congress is down to 65 after having won 81 seats in last assembly polls while BJP is up to 103. As per current strength, both the BJP and the Congress could win two seats each but by fielding Congress turncoat Narhari Amin as the third candidate, the BJP has made it clear that it will push the envelope as far as possible. 37 MLA votes could fetch one seat in the Upper House. As such BJP will be left with 29 votes after winning its quota of two while will be left 28 now after eight desertions.

In 2017 Congress’ ace strategist Ahmed Patel, the political advisor of Sonia Gandhi could scrape through as six Congress MLAs resigned just before the Rajya Sabha polls, only because the Election Commission invalidated votes of two rebel Congress MLAs. In 2018 again, two more Congress including its much-touted OBC face Alpesh Thakore resigned.

In the bordering state Madhya Pradesh where the former minister in UPA government Jyotiraditya Scindia is a Rajya Sabha candidate from the BJP, the saffron party is slated to make a deeper dent in Congress strength, having already secured desertion of 22 Congress MLAs.

The Congress, which swept to power in the state in 2018 after a 15-years-long gap, has now only 92 MLAs while the BJP has 107 MLAs, a number which could swell further after the assembly by-polls likely in September as most of these seats fall in Scindia’s domain of Gwalior-Chambal. BJP has aggressively wooed the two MLAs from BSP, one SP and four independents. 52 MLAs translates into one Rajya Sabha seat can now easily win a second seat while Congress will have to stay content with just one of Digvijay Singh unless last-minute surprises spring.

In Rajasthan, which was also won by the Congress in 2018, the BJP is eyeing to gain from the rivalry between Congress Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his Deputy Sachin Pilot to wean away some Gujjar MLAs. However, Congress has 107 MLAs in the Assembly with BJP falling a distant second with 72 but 21 from independent and others category could spoil the game even if few desertions happen from Congress. 51 votes are needed to win a seat here. AICC general secretary K C Venugopal is one of the two candidates here. When the Election Commission had postponed the March 26 election for Rajya Sabha, Gehlot criticised the decision as one taken under pressure of the central government but Pilot was quick to welcome it.