Comment

Beware of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – that’s the buzz doing the rounds of the Vidhan Bhavan as members of the ruling Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) realise the budget session cannot be taken lightly; the opposition is determined to highlight all the failures of the Ashok Chavan government.

On Friday, when the leader of the opposition Eknath Khadse was directing a blistering attack at the government, he was taken aback to see a little note being passed to him from the ruling benches. After a brief pause, he glanced at the note and was amused to see a request from the Congress party urging him not to personally attack the chief minister during his speech. Khadse, who shares a cordial relationship with members from both the ruling as well as opposition parties, decided to ignore the ‘request’.

As his close aide said, “Why should he spare the chief minister?” After all, Chavan is the leader of the ruling Congress-NCP in the house and accountable for everything that goes wrong in the government. More significantly, the BJP reckons its biggest challenge is to restore its credibility as a serious opposition party which is not hand-in-glove with the ruling combine.

All for grabbing eyeballs
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which thundered onto the political stage in the last assembly session, appears to be grappling with real subjects. How else can one explain their decision to travel in a horse-cart to show displeasure over the hike in diesel and petrol prices? The Raj Thackeray-led party may have succeeded in grabbing eyeballs but is also become the target of some wisecracks. For instance, a senior BJP leader quipped: “I am sure if MNS had hired a taxi it would have cost them one-tenth of what they paid for the cart.” In a candid admission, a gentle MNS member said, “Well, we just wanted to mark our presence on the opening day of the budget session. It was just to have some fun.”

Battling the women’s bill
The passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha may have brought some cheer to the Congress party but, as the parliament takes a break, the political managers are closely monitoring the activities of UPA partners. Behind closed doors they are working out ways to corner the ruling Congress. A senior politician from Maharashtra was heard saying, “In 1996, when the women’s bill was introduced by ex-prime minister Deve Gowda’s government, his government was brought down within months. Prime minister IK Gujral’s government met with a similar fate.”

This time around, nobody is discounting the mandate in favour of the Congress which won 206 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. But the simmering discontent among alliance partners who have started holding the UPA hostage, has the government worried. Set aside the Congress and the BJP (116), the remaining parties account for a sizeable 223. And, the discontent among the others (the third front) is also over the price rise. The NDA is already waiting for an opportunity to capitalise on the mood to cause some embarrassment to the Manmohan Singh government, even if it does not go the Gowda or Gujral way.