The year is 2019.
The man who has grown up believing he has taken birth to become the Prime Minister of India is celebrating 10 million followers on Twitter. He has resigned as party president and the national leadership is as clueless as a headless chicken.
Half the senior Congress leaders have submitted their resignation from the posts of state chiefs. Half of them are currently eyeing the top post themselves.
Some states where the Congress formed the government with alliance partners are on the verge of collapse. Karnataka government can fall any time. Over a dozen MLAs have resigned and are refusing to talk to state leadership.
The 150-year-old political party in India is staring at an existential crisis. What does it do to make itself relevant again?
It takes to Twitter to trend a hashtag. ‘#BJPKidnapsMLAs’
Not kidding.
Years down the line when another ‘historian’ Guha writes accolades for Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family, he will write how ‘BJPKidnapsMLAs’ was a strategic move for Congress.
The 10 rebel Karnataka Congress MLAs have booked a resort in Mumbai and have requested protection because they feel threatened by their own party leaders. DK Sivakumar, who was sitting outside the hotel after being denied entry, was detained by the police. Section 144 has now been imposed in that area.
Congress has now accused that the BJP has ‘kidnapped’ its MLAs. Congress’ solution to save the imminent collapse of the government is to trend a hashtag accusing its opponent of ‘kidnapping’ the MLAs. There is an amusing observation if you glance through the tweets.
DK Shivakumar ji, tried to visit them in the said hotel, the police stopped him from entering the hotel despite him having a booking there. And they eventually pressurised the hotel to cancel his booking.#BJPKidnapsMLAs#BJPKidnapsMLAs
Martha @INCIndia army. Please support DK. pic.twitter.com/KuELmOJ5kA— Alamgir Rizvi(عالمگیر رضوی) (@alamgirizvi) July 10, 2019
This man DK Shivakumar alone is giving nightmares to whole BJP.
In order to get MLAs back he first went to resort in Bengaluru, Goa and now he is in Bombay since today morning 8, standing outside hotel in heavy rains to save MLAs and to save democracy.#BJPKidnapsMLAs pic.twitter.com/cSOQjVdnBV— Gabbar ? (@Gabbar0099) July 10, 2019
DK Shivakumar is a brave leader, fighting against his own MLAs, BJP, BJP’s money+power, Amit Shah and state machinery. And all of them are scared of him right now.#BJPKidnapsMLAs
— Sanghamitra (@AudaciousQuest_) July 10, 2019
See how these sample tweets all talk about DK Shivakumar? And how he is singlehandedly braving it all? How ‘DK Shivakumar’ is giving ‘nightmares’ to Home Minister Amit Shah?
When Congress managed to form the alliance government in Karnataka in May 2018, DK Shivakumar was hailed as the ‘Amit Shah’ of Karnataka. The mind who managed to forge an alliance to get first big ‘victory’ for Congress after a series of failures.
Going by the tweets, one wonders if there is more to it than meets the eye? Is DK Shivakumar himself looking to catapult into the national role piggybacking on the Karnataka crisis?
