Who could challenge Modi…? 22 September

Sharad Yadav, unsolicited dark horse ?        The mighty Narendra Modi !

Malladi Rama Rao

Sharad Yadav - a challenger to Modi in 2019? Unthinkable, one may say, but unpredictability is the beauty of politics. Like in a one-day cricket match.
With Nitish throwing in the Mahagathbandhan towel, Mother –Son Gandhis still in yesterdaymode, Lalu stuck in fodder with daughter Misa and son Tejaswi for company, garrulous Mamata in Bengali knots, and the one and only Arvind Kejriwal down in the dumps with his crazy antics, Sharad appears as a better bet to take on the mighty Modi at the next hustings.
Yes, the OBC stalwart is a rootless wonder. He suffers from an incurable foot-in-the mouth (FIM) disease, and may offer "bal kati mahila" (ladies with short hair) barbs once again to the dismay of liberals and to the delight of cartoonists. But honestly, which politician does not have some FIM variant, whether he is a humble Deve Gowda or a blue blooded Diggy Raja.
This is India, my dear. Switch on Lok Sabha TV when Parliament is in session, and see how the law makers perform with gusto on the floor of legislature. Our politicians are born entertainers. And they perform far better than Shahrukhs and Ranbirs from the celluloid world. Without a script and without a director.

Sharad Yadav is no Rahul Gandhi. He has neither a dynasty to back him nor a national stature despite long years of stay in Lyuten's Delhi and a front bench seat in the House of Elders. But unlike Rahul, he is a full-time politician. Again unlike the scion of the Nehru-Indira dynasty, the Madhya Pradesh-born Bihar-centric leader has credibility. People listen to him when he stands up since he does not make a mess of himself like Rahul Gandhi. Nor does he disappear to a foreign country at regular intervals for introspection or a yoga session.

Rahul Gandhi Right now, the concern of the old socialist from the Janata Dal amoeba is to find a roof over his head since his old friend, Nitish Kumar, has shown him the door from the JD-U. Some may say he has met with natural retribution since he went along with fellow engineer in dumping George sab, as the redoubtable George Fernandes was (is?) known in the Janata circles. But that is not germane to our discussion.
Sharad Yadav is no Rahul Gandhi. He has neither a dynasty to back him nor a national stature despite long years of stay in Lyuten's Delhi and a front bench seat in the House of Elders. But unlike Rahul, he is a full-time politician. Again unlike the scion of the Nehru-Indira dynasty, the Madhya Pradesh-born Biharcentric leader has credibility. People listen to him when he stands up since he does not make a mess of himself like Rahul Gandhi. Nor does he disappear to a foreign country at regular intervals for introspection or a yoga session.

Sharad will give, to borrow the market idiom, value addition to Lalu. The 'Angreji' press may say anything about Rabri-pati. But it cannot deny that he has his Yadav Brand intact. Whoever aligns with him stands to gain, as Nitish Kumar realised it and the Congress had learnt first-hand. In a state-like Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, corruption is not a big political issue. Otherwise, Mahagathbandhan could have fared poorly to the delight of Modi-Shah combine.
One big plus with Sharad is that he is an old socialist, who does not aspire for something big. Lalu needs such a person in his comeback game.

Mamata Banerjee True political pundits have already written off the entire non- BJP political spectrum as of no consequence. Opinion surveys are assuring another mandate to Brand Modi. Anti-Congressism has been replaced by anti-Modiism.
Like Indira Gandhi yesterday, the Hindu Hrudaya Samrat, as NaMo is hailed and worshipped by the Parivar, has created a one-way traffic towards the ballot box. And his Sancho Panza, Amit Shah, is striving to usher in the BJP's golden era when the party holds power from panchayat to Parliament.

Amit Shah The BJP national president is on a 110-day, country-wide tour even though the next general election is two years away. His goal is to gain acceptance for the BJP ideology and build a stronger 'Brand Modi' that helps the party to "remain unconquerable" at the centre. All this is an ominous warning to political rivals desperate to stop the saffron surge but they are yet to come to grips with the poll reality.

Kapil Sibal Cadre based Marxists are giving company to the Congress whose cadre is an amorphous group at the best of times in the all-important state of West Bengal as the latest municipal round has shown. Pushing aside these two old giants, the BJP, a recent entrant into 'secular' Bengal politics, has emerged as the potential challenger to Trinamool Congress. No surprise, Mamata Didi sees phantoms the moment she hears the name of Amit Shah.

Nitish Kumar As Lord Meghnad Desai observes in his latest newspaper column "Out Of My Mind", the non-BJP parties are refusing to reinvent themselves and thus challenge Modi's new BJP.
Their planks - communalism, tolerance and Muslims in danger are set in the old world, whereas Modi has managed to change the national narrative. He has taken the 2019 mandate for granted and is talking about plans for 2022. What is more, he has "boisterously" appropriated the Quit India movement which the Sonia Congress believes to be "its family

Lalu Prasad Yadav heirloom", to quote noted commentator, Parsa Venkateshwara Rao Jr. This is a no mean feat and it has been accompanied by jettisoning Jawaharlal Nehru from the official discourse. Parivar's antipathy to the builder of modern India is no secret. But then no one expected the yesterday's pracharak to be true to his Parivar roots so early in the day with no second thoughts whatsoever.

Mayawati Kapil Sibal may like to lament in public that "my India has changed".
He may like to charge that the Modi regime is "thriving on instilling fear and suppression of dissent". But will he ponder over for a moment why cow vigilantism, love jihad, and tolerance debate have not stirred India even as these issues passionately championed by the Opposition have remained fodder for the vibrant social media.
It is time the Congress tries to come to grips with this allimportant question if it wants to enter into the next poll battle zone with its head held high. It should find out as to what extent its policies have created a groundswell of support to the Parivar by making average Indian, who does not subscribe to any ism in day-today life to remain disenchanted to the goings on around him.

Historically speaking, India is a two –party state with the Congress and the BJP as two pivots at the national level. Even at the provincial level with the regional parties aligning with either of the two parties. My analysis of successive results shows that the Congress's victory is directly proportional to the performance of its political rival. Ditto is true for the BJP too.

Equally essential is another question: Should the Congress, the GOP of India, allow itself to remain in what Nitish Kumar and Mayawati term as its favourite mode - reaction to what Modi does? It is no longer a question of Old Guard versus New Guard, more so when it's very survival instincts are being questioned loudly with every passing day.

Sonia Gandhi Ahmed Patel has single handedly galvanised the party to bail him out of a certain defeat reserved for him by a fellow Gujju bhai in the RS bypolls.
If he could do so despite his long years in the proverbial backroom, others like Ghulam Nabi Azads, Motilal Voras, Kamal Naths, and AK Antonys could fare far better with their grassroots experience and expertise. But where are they today ? Why have they left the field open to spokespersons, who focus more on their appearance rather than arguments? The likes of Chidambarams have a place in any political party but their court-room manners do not bring in votes.
The Congress needs a full-time politician to helm its affairs. It is this feature that sets apart the RJD of Lalu Prasad or the JD-U of Nitish Kumar. The DMK has never been let down by Karunanidhi even after he anointed his second son Stalin as his successor. Mamata is leading her TMC from the front like a true Royal Bengal Tigress. Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh and K Chandrasekhar Rao in Telangana are hands on managers of their regional outfits. So is Sharad Pawar with his Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Navin Patnaik with the Biju Janata Dal despite his poor health.

Sharad Yadav could emerge as the unsolicited dark horse whether he suo moto jumps on Lalu's bandwagon or the RJD supremo makes him his new mascot. Well, anything is possible. Two years is a long time for Indian politicians to put their act together even with their penchant not to look beyond the nose.

Non-BJP conclaves, like the ones Sonia Gandhi had held in the run up to the Presidential and Vice- Presidential elections and afterwards, are good photo ops. Nothing more, nothing less. The BJP has started cruising for poll position and is generating buzz around Hindutva, as a Times of India headline said on Aug 11.
It means the non-BJP parties must get cracking on their very own blue print for the 2019 ballot. As the party with a nation-wide footprint, the Congress should take the lead for such an exercise if it wants to be counted as a political force of substance.
Historically speaking, India is a two –party state with the Congress

and the BJP as two pivots at the national level. Even at the provincial level, with the regional parties aligning with either of the two parties. My analysis of successive results shows that the Congress's victory is directly proportional to the performance of its political rival. Ditto is true for the BJP too.
This argument doesn't belittle the TINA factor that Modi has made his own, and the role Sonia Gandhi has played in breathing life into the Congress but highlights the rude reality for the Congress and its allies, who have become hostages to the UPA syndrome. Also the fact that Congress has more or less slipped into a state of comatose with the party's youthful faces on a photo ops spree.
Time Congress looks at the scene with an open mind, Sonia Gandhi becomes a Mother Superior, and closes ranks with likes of the NCP with no thought on how they will act and react in the days ahead, particularly in Gujarat, the first battle zone state, where the stakes are now too high both for the Modi- Shah combine and the Congress.
As pointed out at the outset, Sharad Yadav could emerge as the unsolicited dark horse whether he suo moto jumps on Lalu's bandwagon or the RJD supremo makes him his new mascot.
Well, anything is possible.
Two years is a long time for Indian politicians to put their act together even with their penchant not to look beyond the nose. And thus compel Modi and Shah to recalibrate their narrative! Race to find a challenger to Modi has begun. Truly.