Congress will not jettison PM
The dramatic developments on Wednesday unleashed by UPA-2 partner Mamata Banerjee on the issue of the presidential poll leave two clear messages.
The first is that there is no way Congress plans to jettison Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Doing so would imply the Congress cannot run the show for a full-term, more so when the appointee is Sonia Gandhi’ choice.
As a leading figure in the Nationalist Congress Party noted dryly, “Such a thing would be contemplated by the Congress only if they were so desperate as to make Rahul the Prime Minister midstream.’’
For a party like the Congress or indeed BJP changing the Prime Minister amounts to an admission of failure before the electorate.
The second lesson is that UPA-2 has split open. Ms Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress has as good as left the ruling coalition. Even if the formality is not completed, Congress is likely to bring dalit icon Mayawati into the picture more centrally.
Of course, at this stage Congress is not discussing these tricky possibilities on the record. “But the game has now opened up,” a leading UPA source said. Some, including Ms Banerjee may hope for a mid-term poll, but this appears unlikely. Bharatiya Janata Party, the main Opposition, is itself likely to be divided on it.
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Naveen pledges his support to Ramdev
AKSHAYA KUMAR SAHOO
Bhubaneswar, June 13
A day after enlisting support of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for his campaign against black money, yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Wednesday met Orissa chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik here at his residence.
After the meeting which continued for an hour, Ramdev said the chief minister assured all his support for his campaign against corruption to bring back India the black money stashed in foreign banks.
“The chief minister was quite reciprocal to our suggestion to fight out corruption. He pledged his support to our campaign over black money,” the yoga guru said.
Chief minister Mr Patnaik said his government had been fighting all these years against corruption and nepotism and had taken actions a lot of dishonest officials and politicians.
“My government does not spare any dishonest politicians and bureaucrats. Many such people have been arrested and are cooling their heels in jails. We will support Baba Ramdev’s campaign, if it goes peacefully and in Gandhian way,” the chief minister said.
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