The Bahujan Samaj Party’s national executive committee is meeting today and it is being speculated that Mayawati is going to be projected as the party’s PM face. According to reports, the meeting is being held also to evaluate pre-poll alliances with Congress for the upcoming polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Party leaders have reportedly stated that the meeting will also decide on projecting Mayawati as the PM candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
It is notable here that the BSP, in total, has 4 Rajya Sabha seats and ‘Zero’ Lok Sabha seats. With this, social media is already buzzing with speculations about how the alliance with Congress will work if other parties too have their own ‘PM candidates’.
Without Mayawati, no UP, without UP, no chance in Lok Sabha 2019 so will Congress let Mayawati be projected as PM candidate? ?
— गप्पिस्तान रेडियो (@GappistanRadio) May 26, 2018
Mayawati is not the only lady challenging Congress’s Prince charming for ‘PM face’ either. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee has since long been the one continuously calling for a ‘United Opposition’. She has met Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackrey, TDP’S Chandrababu Naidu and has been very vocal for an anti-BJP alliance in recent times. Whats more, there is even a massive social media campaign going on with the slogan “Didi for PM” being actively propagated by her supporters.
Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress has 38 members in the Lok Sabha and her power and ability to swing a mandate at least in West Bengal cannot be ignored in the elections. Mamata Banerjee did not attend the gala dinner organised by Sonia Gandhi. She did not even meet Rahul Gandhi when she went to Delhi to meet leaders for an anti-BJP alliance. Her tweet congratulating the new Congress-JDS alliance government in Karnataka said a lot because she did not mention Rahul Gandhi in the tweet.
Democracy wins. Congratulations Karnataka. Congratulations DeveGowda Ji, Kumaraswamy Ji, Congress and others. Victory of the ‘regional’ front
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 19, 2018
The absence of Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi’s name and the deliberate emphasis on the word ‘regional’ was noted by many. Does that mean Mamata will not meekly agree to Congress’s Gandhi family-centric political manoeuvres?
Rahul Gandhi has stated openly that he wants to become the PM, Congress, being Congress, is always expected to cater to the ‘family’. But there are many regional political leaders who may not agree to that. With its diminishing political hold and loss of power in so many states, many senior political leaders of regional parties may not agree with Rahul Gandhi becoming their PM face. A United opposition also needs a single leader projected as the possible PM candidate. With many leaders throwing their hats in the ring, will Rahul Gandhi be sidelined? Or the Congress will hold its loyalty to the dynasty above political dealings and ditch the regional leaders? Or will the United Opposition front crumble like a house of cards because the khichdi alliance has too many mouths to feed? Only time will tell.
