news details |
|
|
| Congress's self-goal Gadkari's resignation a blessing in disguise for BJP | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 23: National president of BJP Nitin Gadkari yesterday evening resigned from the post saying he would accept position in the party only after he is cleared of all the alleged charges of corruption leveled against him by certain interests who were all out to tarnish his image and also asserted that the Congress Government conspired against him to malign him and damage the BJP and marring its electoral prospectus accusing it of being led by a person who is allegedly involved in corrupt practices. He resigned following the action of Income Tax Department. The IT Department yesterday virtually raided eight companies connected with Purti Group, an industrial house he himself founded a few years back. It is widely believed that the Congress party and the Congress-led UPA Government "misused" the IT Department in order to take a political mileage and improve its electoral prospects by targeting the companies connected with Purti Group and create an impression across the country that the BJP is under pressure from the RSS, its mentor, to give a second term to Gadkari who is corrupt. There are reasons to believe that the Congress, which is desperate to capture power at the Centre for the third time in a row and put newly-appointed AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, a scion of Nehru-Gandhi family, in the centre-stage of national politics, might have misused the IT Department to do what it did yesterday evening just on the eve of election of national BJP president. Gadkari was till late last evening the most probable candidate for the top position in the party.
The decision of Gadkari to step down and not to hanker after the post for the second time in a row could be considered as a master stroke of the BJP think-tank in the sense that his decision would surely upset the Congress's applecart and help the BJP improve its tally in the next general elections quite substantially. The resignation of Gadkari from the top position and the Wednesday's unanimous choice of an experienced, clean, non-controversial and sophisticated Rajnath Singh, former BJP national president and UP Chief Minister, for the top position in the party at a time when the general elections are round the corner would certainly help the party to perform reasonably well in the general elections, as and when held, and the elections could be held in 2013 itself, instead of 2014. The political environment in the country is such that elections can take place immediately after the 2013 budget session of the Parliament.
The fact of the matter is that the resignation of Gadkari at this juncture might act as a last nail in the coffin of the Congress party, which has lost its sheen and appeal; which is condemned as the mother of all ills; which is roundly denounced as "most corrupt"; which is dismissed as "pseudo-secular", "anti-people", "anti-democratic", "pro-separatist", "pro-terrorist"; and essentially "anti-Hindu"; which is being accused of "bartering the paramount national interests in order to appeasing Pakistan"; and which is being charged with "ruining India socially, culturally, politically and economically"; and whose "socio-economic and political policies have very much made the life of common man very difficult".
The Congress strategists were perhaps thinking that the RSS and the BJP top-brass would overlook the criticism of Gadkari and reappoint him as party president and such a political decision on their part would make the task of the Congress party quite easy. In fact, senior Congress leader and former Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer had only a couple of days before the unanimous election of Rajnath Singh told media persons in Jaipur that re-election of Gadkari would mean "half victory for the Congress party even before going to the elections". Since Rajnath Singh has become BJP national president following what the IT Department did, as also following the intense media debates, the Congress would find it extremely difficult to counter the BJP's anti-corruption crusade against it. In other words, while the BJP would be on the offensive, the Congress would be on the defensive. Indeed, the situation has changed dramatically with the resignation of Gadkari and it would be only proper to say that his decision would surely prove a blessing in disguise for the BJP. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
