The Uttar Pradesh elections has brought two supposed youth icons of the country together, at a time when both are desperately fighting for survival.
Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi are roaming the towns of Uttar Pradesh, the latter often assuming the role of the former’s running mate.
Akhilesh, with a poor track record in governance, is fighting widespread anti-incumbency. Rahul’s inability to catch a break continues. Unfortunately for both, neither seem to be working towards securing a victory as much as they seem to be working towards bringing the other down.
The Congress Party is dead. Every politician who doesn’t think so and acts accordingly, is making a huge strategic blunder. Last year when elections took place in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the DMK and the left allied with the Congress Party in their respective states. Both the regional outfits were decimated. The Congress Party, despite playing second fiddle in most states of the country today, has a strike-rate that is substantially lower than its regional partners. Moreover, the Congress Party has been on a losing spree since 2014, and has been relegated to third or fourth positions in states like Orissa and Maharashtra.
Rahul Gandhi’s gaffes are not uncommon. Every time he speaks publicly, the consequences for his party are adverse. His organisational skills are poor. He has been a liability to his party from the beginning, and continues to be one in Uttar Pradesh this year. Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, who was initially the party’s chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh but was removed after the party got into an alliance with the Samajwadis, says the forty-six-year old is still not mature and needs more time. In some of his public addresses, he was vocal about the state’s unemployment and poverty. Many wondered if he had forgotten about the alliance. Allying with the Congress Party is political hara-kiri. One wonders why Akhilesh Yadav chose to ally with them.
The reason he furnishes is the same old ‘secular forces uniting to fight communal forces’. The reason several analysts furnish is that he doesn’t want the Muslim vote to get divided. But these reasons do not make sense, because they do not explain his generosity. One doesn’t have to part with over a hundred seats to fight so-called communalism or keep the Muslim vote undivided. On the other hand, a party that is sure to lose and is looking for a scapegoat to save their upstart leader’s political career, might part with over one hundred seats. Or perhaps, a party that is sure to lose but has an underhand deal with its biggest rival to polarize the political arena forever by decimating the other two players, might part with over a hundred seats.
Why the Congress Party decided to ally with the Samjwadis is equally perplexing. Just when Prashant Kishore was starting to make a difference, just when the cadre was beginning to feel enthused after many years, just when it seemed that the party would bounce back partially, the entire project was called off and dumped. Instead they allied with a party facing massive anti-incumbency. Their leader of national stature, a prime-ministerial candidate, is now playing second fiddle and roaming the state looking like the chief minister’s running mate. Akhilesh has systematically undermined Rahul’s stature from day one. He has even spoken about a government at the centre led by his father, with Rahul as the deputy-prime minister. One wonders why the Congress Party would accept such treatment.
Perhaps they believe genuinely that they are better off in alliance with the Samajwadis. Perhaps they never thought one of the serious players in Uttar Pradesh would offer them over one hundred seats, and they took the bait. Perhaps those formulating the party’s strategy are busy sabotaging it. One often wonders if Rahul Gandhi is as terrible a politician as he is made out to be, or if he is a closet idealist quietly sabotaging the family business which has ruined India.
If the Samjwadis consider Uttar Pradesh to be a lost cause this time around, it is a different matter. But if they do not, and if they consider themselves to be a serious player in the ongoing elections, their decision to ally with the Congress Party is as hurtful politically as it is for the Congress Party to have allied with them. Neither will come out of this battle unscathed. As the supposed youth icons destroy each other slowly but surely, which of them takes a bigger hit remains to be seen.