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Political Notes |
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Uttar Pradesh : Congress, SP row hots up
As the Congress and Samajwadi Party(SP) are at verbal wars, the future of the coalition government is uncertain. The recent drama started with Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s remarks that the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh was deteriorating. She was visiting her Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency. This irked the SP chief and Chief Minister of the state, Mulayam Singh Yadav who openly criticised Sonia Gandhi at a poll rally in the state. Though such attacks have become a regular affair as far as SP and Congress are concerned, it has been getting worse with every passing day. The SP has challenged the Congress to withdraw support to the Government if it was really serious.
Analysts believe that it is very difficult for both the parties to withdraw support due to certain factors. Firstly, the Congress is supporting the SP Government from outside in Uttar Pradesh, while the Samajwadi Party is also supporting the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre. Also both the parties realize that they would lose the Muslim votes in future elections if the Congress withdraws its support to the state government. The Congress and SP depend on the Muslim vote bank to a large extent. Their combination presents a secular platform against the communal Bharatiya Janata Party. “The political reality is that both sides have to put up with each other. The secular voters want us to be together and there is little we can do about it at the moment,” SP member of the Rajya Sabha Shahid Siddiqui said.
Tamil Nadu : Jayalalithaa praises PM, Sonia
In a curious turn to politics, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa has praised Congress leaders. Forgotten was the issue of Sonia Gandhi’s “foreign origin”. “That came up in the heat of the electoral battle and it was in that spirit that the issue of Sonia’s foreign origin was raised,” said Jayalalithaa. “It is not meant to be interpreted as a personal attack.”
Instead, after her meeting with Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister complimented Sonia for declining the PM’s post. “That was a good decision,” she said.
Then, as Jaya spoke on the PM, it was difficult to reconcile her words with someone who had fought against the Congress coalition so recently. “I first interacted with the PM when he was Finance Minister and I became CM for the first time, and I have very pleasant memories of those days,” she said warmly. “He is a perfect gentleman, full of courtesy and kindness, and a man of great learning.”
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister presented a 60-page memorandum to Dr. Singh, touching on the Cauvery project, Chennai airport, POTA review and status of the Tamil language. Then, quick to score some points off her real rivals, the DMK, she pointed out, had 12 Union Ministers from Tamil Nadu had done nothing for the state.
Significantly, she stressed that she was “independent” and her party, the AIADMK, only gave “issue-based” support to the NDA. “We are not part of any alliance at the Centre,” she said. “We continue to give the NDA support but we also continue to remain independent.”
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