It seems, the consistent
electoral debacles, the deepening ill-fame of the Manmohan Singh led United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government, and the recent poll humiliations in Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi have
drained the grand old party of India
totally, squeezing and diluting its grey-matter.
Had it not been so, the party
would not have decided to take this risk. It is beyond the rational political thinking
of the day that what pushed the Congress strategists to go with it. But let’s
give it a try.
The strategists might have
thought that AAP would not be able to run the government effectively and would
fail miserably in fulfilling the promises it had made to the electorate. They
might have thought an inexperienced government burdened with extremely demanding
expectations would give more than enough calls to look good while pulling out
the support and bringing down the government.
Suppose that happens. What would
happen then?
Now, if this ‘pulling out’ game
happens just in time to let Delhi have repoll with the Lok Sabha elections
(that could be one of the possibilities Congress strategists would be ‘staring’
at), then the electoral arena would be open to be exploited again.
But that would not help Congress.
The mileage would go to BJP. And it is ridiculous if Congress strategists
cannot see this point. A negative performance by AAP would help BJP and not
Congress in Delhi
as the party will have an opportunity to couple its ‘high moral stand’ ground
with the Modi-factor in the backdrop of the huge anti-incumbency against the
UPA government.
It is to be seen BJP is the
winner of Delhi
assembly polls, in terms of number of seats and the vote share. And it is well
known that there was no morality involved when the party decided to bequeath
its claim of forming the government in Delhi .
But a failing AAP will give the
BJP decision of not forming the government a moralistic hue then and will naturally
push the public to the BJP fold.
But, there is a ‘but’ involved
that may also spoil the BJP’s chessboard.
If AAP can perform on the major
promises of power and water tariffs and VIP culture in Delhi in the two and
half months available, it will effectively make the Congress party dormant in
Delhi for a long time and will force BJP to reorganize and relook on its
strategy if the party has to form the next government in Delhi after the Arvind
Kejriwal led AAP government that is expected to take oath on December 26.
Any which way, the Congress party
is poised to come out to be the biggest loser. A performing AAP government
would not let it score any point as Arvind Kejriwal has not asked for the support
but a failing AAP government would give BJP an opportunity to hit directly and
bluntly at Congress blaming it for pushing Delhi to the days of uncertainty and political
chaos.
And what would the ‘old and new’
strategists of the grand old party of India do when the AAP government, as
promised, starts probing the corruption cases against Congress leaders, and ‘possibly
jailing’ them?
Certainly, as universally known
about the character of the Congress party, they will pull the plug immediately,
giving yet another solid reason to AAP to play the Good Samaritan on the
political block.
So, we come back to the question
again where we had begun - what made the Congress strategists to decide on supporting
AAP to form the government in Delhi ?
Bloopers! Blunder!!
