Sonia Gandhi’s Self-destructive Streak – 2

After the death of Rajshekhar Reddy the prevailing political dynastic culture expressed itself as was expected. The late CM’s son, Jagan Mohan Reddy, was an elected MP. The sentiment in the Andhra Congress was overwhelmingly in favour of making him the successor. For no convincing reason Mrs Sonia Gandhi resisted that move. Perhaps a younger leader than Rahul Gandhi with the strong support base of one of India’s larger states solidly behind him injected envy mixed with insecurity in 10 Jan path.

Whatever the reason, Mrs Gandhi tried to defuse Jagan Mohan’s strength by recklessly announcing a separate Telangana state without laying proper ground work for an all India policy change. As a result not only did she create a political mess by destabilizing Andhra, the most important Congress bastion in the country, she also alienated the followers of Jagan Mohan Reddy and with each passing day the distance between the two camps widened.

On September 9, 2009 it was stated in an article entitled Sonia’s Self-destructive Streak:

“The late Chief Minister’s son is a young first term MP. Overwhelmingly the Andhra MLAs want him to succeed to the vacant post. Sonia Gandhi is reluctant to oblige… If Mrs Gandhi attempts to scotch the Andhra revolt the Congress may have to pay very dearly for that.”

Well, now it is pay back time. Jagan Mohan has resigned from Parliament and the Congress Party. His mother, an MLA, has also resigned from the assembly and the party. The clan is going to fight on the ground. Jagan Mohan will launch his own party.

The first response of the Congress is pathetic. It is refuting the number of MLAs reputedly supporting Jagan Mohan by offering a paltry figure. Further it has sought an alliance with a regional party led by the actor Charanjeevi to counter the possible fallout of Jagan’s revolt. This panic step is the worst signal the party could have sent to the Andhra public. One suspects that the Congress leadership is clueless about the nature of the challenge.

Jagan Mohan Reddy will not bother whether he attracts 20 MLAs or five. Events over the past months show that he has acquired enough strength to create his own mass based party. As it continues to grow and increase strength MLAs will line up to join him. It will be up to him to pick and choose. Present ground realities suggest that Sonia Gandhi has struck the last nail in the coffin of the Andhra Congress. Now it remains to be seen how the rest of the country reacts to the unfolding events in Andhra.

29-Nov-2010

More by : Dr. Rajinder Puri

Top | Analysis

Views: 3566 Comments: 1

AP is the last state where the Kkangress was going it alone; now the show seems to be over there as well.
The amount of unrest in our nation at present is at alarming levels: 2G, CWG, Satyam/ Maytas, Adarsh, Radia / Vir Sanghvi / corporate tapes, arbitrary environmental decisions by Jairam Ramesh, absurd "interlocution" in JNK, IPL mess, LIC mess, Bank ( bad loans) scam, Nagaland-Manipur row , JPC impasse in Parliament, Karnataka MLA mess followed by scams etc etc.

seadog4227
29-Nov-2010 10:31 AM

Name *

Email ID

(will not be published)

Comment *

Characters

Verification Code*

Can't read? Reload

Please fill the above code for verification.