At the same time, it is being whispered that Mr Ramesh may not be the best choice for this all-important job as it would deter the corporate sector from extending financial help to the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.The rivalry between Union minister Vijay Goel and president of the BJP’s Delhi unit Manoj Tiwari is an open secret.Now that he has staged a comeback in state politics, Mr Jha has made it clear that he will be no push-over. Top Opposition leaders skipped the event but the evening did see a large turn-out of young guests whose energy and enthusiasm was inescapable.When Rahul Gandhi hosted his first iftar last week after taking as Congress president, it was inevitable that comparisons would be drawn with the iftars hosted by his mother and former party chief Sonia Gandhi. These iftars were an organised and genteel affair, an extension of the host’s personality. But the chief minister will not be happy with the new appointment. Mr Jha is using this opportunity to build his personal profile and word has got round that he will have a major say in the distribution of tickets. According to the buzz in the Congress circles, the letter was probably leaked to the media by a party insider with the obvious purpose of sabotaging his appointment as poll coordinator.Rajya Sabha MP and BJP national vice-president Prabhat Jha has now been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the party and the state government’s activities get prominent space in the local media with an eye on the year-end Assembly elections.The fact that he has done a stint as president of the BJP’s state unit is proving to be a big advantage as ticket aspirants are willing to believe that Mr Jha will be a key player in the coming elections.

It is no coincidence that a letter written by Mr Ramesh in 2014 to the then Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan seeking his help regarding the interrogation of Prime Minister Rural Development Fellow Mahesh Raut is once again being highlighted by the media.He has taken care to pick personalities like Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid and former Aam Admi Party  leader and MLA Kapil Mishra which ensures him instant media coverage. The change became necessary as the state government is fighting hard to ward off growing anti-incumbency.The knives are out in the Congress for former Cabinet minister Jairam Ramesh ever since the media reported that party president Rahul Gandhi is going to appoint him as poll coordinator for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Mr Raut was recently arrested by the Pune police in connection with the violence witnessed during an annual event organised to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregoan in Maharashtra..The change can be attributed to the fact that the Congress has a younger president now and the head of the party’s minority department, Nadeem Javed, picked by Mr Gandhi, also belongs to the new generation of leaders. Not known to be on friendly terms with Mr Jha, Mr Chouhan had successfully ensured his marginalisation in Madhya Pradesh over the past few years. But Mr Goel appears to have scored over his rival in the latest round of one-upmanship. This event was more egalitarian as it had a substantial presence of guests who would fall into the category of aam admi.The Rahul Gandhi-hosted iftar, on the other hand, bore his imprint and reflected the generational change in the Congress. Besides political leaders, the guest list at these iftar dinners also included leading figures from the Muslim community as well as diplomats and academics.Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah recently ordered a revamp of the party’s communications department in Bhopal after it was noticed that the Congress party’s activities in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh had started getting greater coverage in the last few weeks.

The two leaders are constantly trying to put each other down as Mr Goel is keen to get back to Delhi politics and Mr Tiwari is resisting his efforts.The last iftar hosted by her in 2015 was attended by a host of Opposition leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, the then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and DMK leader Kanimozhi. The event was specifically meant to showcase the growing proximity among the Opposition leaders.For instance, Mr Tiwari was the first to call on Mr Rajyavardhan Rathore when he Wholesale party tent for sale was given charge of the sports ministry, earlier headed by Mr Goel.Mr Ramesh had made himself unpopular with industrialists when he was heading the environment ministry as he had held up their projects citing environmental concerns. On the other hand, little is known about Mr Tiwari’s programme.After BJP president Amit Shah instructed all party members to meet eminent personalities as part of the party’s "Samparak for Samarthan" campaign to provide them details of the Modi government’s achievements, the minister has got off to a flying start.

So, is this really the end of the Left in east India? The fall in West Bengal is followed by the defeat in Tripura. But the come back for the Left in these two states could be a long and arduous one. Mamata Banerjee was a non-ideological leader in the Congress mould, and the defeat of the Left Front did not mean the defeat of Left ideology. It could be a miscalculation. They may win fewer seats for quite some time because the Communists have become an integrated part of India’s parliamentary democracy and its political pluralism. In Tripura, the BJP gets the laurel.There is also a deeper problem with the CPM.Advani about the problem of intruders from Bangladesh and the existence of madrasas. The comrades needed to be woken out of their political reverie. This is not really doomsday for any political parties.Even before losing power in West Bengal, chief ministers Jyoti Basu and his chosen successor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee showed clear signs of pragmatism with regard to private investment, and Bhattacharjee had even agreed with then Union home minister L. Congress has ceased to be a credible political party in these two states. They may have to sit out in the wilderness for many years. But a reformed Labour, many critics called it a Thatcherite Labour, under Tony Blair whose admiration for the Iron Lady was no secret. Many of the nostalgia-soaked Leftists still believe in the dictum of the youthful Marx who had written in his Notebooks that hitherto philosophy had interpreted the world, but the point is to change it. Its party ideologues still call the shots as can be seen from the resistance to align with Congress as part of a secular front to fight the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha election.

It may not happen in the next election or even the one after that. Party general secretary Sitaram Yechury still quotes Marx, but he is willing to be flexible when it comes to the question of political alliances. The one-party rule of the Left cannot be replaced with the one-party rule of the Right.There is a predictable pall of gloom in the liberal, secular circles in the country as the newbie BJP beat the 20-year-old Manik Sarkar government of the CPM in the Tripura Assembly elections last week. There is, however, a difference between the defeat of the Left Front in West Bengal and that of CPM in Tripura. Communist parties would survive in Indian politics despite electoral setbacks. The BJP might pretend that it is not a hidebound ideological party like the Left and that it is more interested in what it professes to be good governance and development. But it failed to save the party from defeat. Communism is dead, but Communist parties are live. Both Mr Modi and Mr Shah knew that they did not merely win as in other state Assembly elections, and that this was sweet ideological triumph more than anything else. When the CPM was reduced to 16 seats and the BJP captured 35, the sighs of despair resounded loudly from the liberal quarter. Some of them like Karat cling to the ruins of Marxism, which is quixotic and tragic. But there is little doubt that if the CPM tries to bounce back, then the BJP would not hesitate to bare its ideological fangs, which translates into toxic Hindutva. The two became the impregnable red bastions of the east.Many in the conservative Indian bourgeois, who harbour fierce hatred of Communism and who in a way form the support base of the BJP, seem to believe that the defeat of the Communist parties in the elections is the defeat of Marxism as an ideology, and the with the death of ideology the Communists would wither away. Manik Sarkar did not show the pragmatic flair of Basu and Bhattacharjee.K. But it should not be forgotten that the Left Front in West Bengal and the Wholesale custom tent for sale CPM in Tripura had a long run and it is not bad either for the people of the two states, or even for the Left parties themselves, that the Left Front and the CPM had been trounced. The story of the Left Democratic Front led by the CPM is different because it never enjoyed an unbroken reign as in the other two eastern states. And Blair had a tough time steering the old Labour from the trade unions and to forge a market-friendly and not-so-welfare-minded new Labour.. It was long overdue. And that could be a troubling development. The anti-BJP non-Communists were hoping that the CPM in Tripura would defy in what was seen as Prime Minister Narendra Modi- and party president Amit Shah-driven BJP juggernaut.

The apparently invincible Left has been shattered. The bare truth is that Marxism can now only be used by radical academics to interpret the world, and that it is incapable of changing the world.Former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat in an informal interaction with a group of newspaper journalists had made the incisive observation in 2010 that the young members of the CPM in West Bengal did not know a time when the party was not in power, and that they did not know what struggle and protest meant. He was anticipating the 2011 defeat in the state. In Tripura, on the other hand, it is the defeat of Left ideology and the winner is a party that is rooted in right-wing ideology. The two hit out where it really hurt. The same could be said of CPM in Tripura as well. The Labour Party in Britain was out of power for 18 years between 1979 and 1997, when the Conservatives ruled the roost, under the charismatic Margaret Thatcher for 11 of those 18 years. Both West Bengal and Tripura need a political opposition.It could be the case that the Kerala Communists could be carrying the party standard in the future because they have shown that you can lose an election and that you wait out to win the next a lesson that the party in the other two states got to learn. Marxism has become obsolete and it is not equipped to change the 21st century world despite capitalism and globalisation being in deep trouble. In West Bengal, the credit goes to the indefatigable and feisty Mamata Banerjee and her All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) that she had single-handedly forged.

Other accusations include putting Punjab on the boil to get even with the Akalis for their opposition during the Emergency. Her peak can be marked almost a-decade -and-half before her career and life ended.Let us examine the charge that she foisted dynasticism on the Congress.. But she proved detractors wrong and showed no "feminine grace" that they expected but presided over the edifice with an iron fist. But her second term, though marked by certain innovations on the economic front, was a disappointment on other domestic issues, most importantly on the handling of the Punjab crisis. Even as it was posing a major threat, the students’ agitation spread to other parts of India and in panic she imposed the Emergency. He took over the Congress presidency in not very savoury circumstances as Purushottam Das Tandon stepped down when the government and ruling party leadership led by Tandon held conflicting positions.Indira’s golden years were 1970-71 when she could do no wrong.Every leader has to mark the spot that is later termed her or his peak by historians of the future. Those who level the accusation forget two significant leadership changes in 1929 and 1959. Given the circumstances under which Indira became president of the Congress and the past elevation of Nehru, she cannot be accused of introducing dynasticism in her party. In 1971, the future beckoned Indira yet she faltered, allowed hubris to sow seeds of her eventual fall.Indira is targeted mainly for being an authoritarian and autocratic leader who destroyed the democratic character of the Congress party, ensuring that the era of politically significant satraps counterbalancing the central leadership was put to an end.

The party had been split, banks had Wholesale waterproof tents for sale been nationalised and though the legislation abolishing the privy purses of former princes had been decaled untenable in the Supreme Court, she converted this into one of the major electoral issues in the first snap poll in the country. She furthered dynasticism in the party and even after Sanjay Gandhi’s death in a plane crash, inducted a clearly reluctant Rajiv Gandhi into the party. The truth is somewhere in between, and despite her fallibilities, Indira made some lasting contributions to nation-building. Events in what was then East Pakistan moved at lightning speed and provided Indira with an opportunity to carve a niche as a national icon by handing a humiliating defeat to Pakistan, breaking up that country and engineering the birth of Bangladesh. However, it will be wrong, especially on an occasion like this, to depict Indira either as a paragon of virtue or the reason for all contemporary troubles. Given the current nature of our political discourse, India’s only woman Prime Minister is more vilified than eulogised. This obviously was not to her liking, and Indira wasted no time to bite the bullet and split the party when she got a chance in the form of the untimely death of President Zakir Hussain, that forced a presidential election wh-ich was not scheduled. Indira is accused of either being party president herself or installing rubber stamps. By late 1973, nothing was rolling her way and the agitation in Gujarat snowballed into a major crisis. What she can be charged with is introducing a greater extent of centralism, and this too was precipitated by attempts by party veterans who thought while she could remain the charismatic front of the party, with the real control remaining in their hands. Tandon realised he was in a minority and resigned, making way for Nehru. She did not continue as president beyond a year of her own volition not because of any qualms that Nehru was gripped with or due to opposition to her leadership. Call her a strong-willed leader or authoritarian, the tragedy was not just the manner of her death but the fact that she fell short of her own potential. In that there could be a lesson worth remembering for contemporary leaders. Indira inherited a fragmented Congress where one faction was constantly in attempts to topple the rival’s applecart.

Though he did not propose her name, if Nehru did not wish the principle of dynasty to be applied, he could have ensured that she turned down the offer.In another two days, the nation will commemorate Indira Gandhi’s birth centenary. Finding the situation untenable, Nehru resigned from the CWC and took the matter to the AICC delegates. For four years Nehru held both positions and the onset of the organisational leadership’s subservi-ence to those in government can be traced to this period. Her victory in 1970 put the Congress back into its dominating position and established that the breakaway group did not have much support among the people. This misadventure was the reason for two great tragedies — one perpetrated by her and the other on her. Three years after Independence, Nehru assumed charge of the party presidency while simultaneously being Prime Minister.Thereafter, in 1959, Nehru allowed Indira to become Congress president. It is a misconception that Atal Behari Vajpayee likened her to Goddess Durga — that was the handiwork of a junior Jan Sangh leader — but the moot point is that for at least one year after the 1971 war, Indira could do no wrong. In the first instance, the baton of Congress president passed from father to son for the first time in the party’s history when Motilal Nehru stepped down for Jawaharlal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his supporters repeatedly stated over the past year that he opted for demonetisation because she did not. Her lingering image is conflictingly portrayed, depending on one’s political orientation or affiliation. Indira in fact was not keen but picked up the challenge after a campaign began within the party that she was not cut out for the job. Her defeat and eventual comeback are like a fairytale. Indira is also indicted for her paranoia and raising the bogey of the "foreign hand" every now and then.

BJP’s national vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, who was appointed by party president Amit Shah to supervise the municipal elections, held a closed-door meeting on Thursday with party veterans such as V. Mr Arya, Mr Bhaj, and Mr Chandla have represented the BJP in the Assembly in the past. Chandla, Harcharan Singh Balli, Mewa Ram Arya, Ram Bhaj, and Praveen Khandelwal."In the meeting we discussed our party’s strategy for the next three days which also includes reaching out to all the sections of the society.K."It came to the notice of the central leadership that there is a Modi wave across the country, including the national capital. But in the last leg of the campaigning, a decision has been made to call these experienced leaders to help the party in the triangular contest," he added.According to party sources, senior most councillor Subhash Arya and former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, who joined the BJP days ago in the presence of Mr Shah and other senior leaders, were also present in the meeting.New Delhi: After getting adverse report from the grassroots level workers, the BJP has roped in its old guards, who were sidelined by the state leadership for the coming civic polls. But there are factors which is stopping it in the city," said a party leader.Prof Malhotra is one of the founding member s of the party. Malhotra, P.. Mr Khandelwal is a prominent trade leader and contested the 2008 Delhi Assembly election from Chandni Chowk. "The party has made several mistakes on the strategy part and there are several reasons behind this.

The sole objective of the meeting was to ensure BJP’s victory in all the three municipal corporations," said a BJP veteran, who attended the meeting. Mr Arya is one the senior most leaders of the party and a councillor since 1997. Sources said that the party is making every possible effort to keep its traditional vote bank intact. A Delhi BJP leader said that these leaders were called in after it came to notice from different sources that the party’s campaign and strategy was not working in their favour as expected.K. The party has also decided to encash Mr Lovely’s popularity in East Delhi and among the Sikh community.Party insider claimed that these senior portable garden gazebos leaders were called up to discuss the poll strategy and Mr Sahasrabuddhe asked them to work to ensure the victory of the BJP in the civic polls.

The focus now would be on the next two Assembly elections that are coming up — in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. But it is clear that the MNF is the first regional party in the region that has managed to call the shots vis-a-vis the BJP, which seems to have engulfed the region insofar as assuming power is concerned. The polls in Manipur saw the BJP bagging a decent number of seats, although the Congress was still the single largest party. It is challenges like these that have perhaps compelled the BJP in a state like Assam to hold on to its regional ally, the Asom Gana Parishad, despite a bitter war of words during the just concluded panchayat elections. Chakma emerged victorious from the Buddhist Chakma-dominated Tuichwang constituency. While remaining a part of the Assam government, the AGP is opposing the BJP’s move to amend the Citizenship Act to grant citizenship rights to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh and other neighbouring nations who may have fled their countries due to alleged persecution. However, it simply cannot afford to be complacent.Then in the state elections that followed in Tripura, and Meghalaya, the BJP managed a spectacular performance, particularly when it managed to overthrow the 25-year-old CPI(M)-led Left Front rule in Tripura. The MNF had been a bitter opponent of the BJP during the campaign despite being a constituent unit of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a front floated by the saffron party immediately after its victory in Assam in 2016. Mizoram was the last bastion of the Congress Party in the Northeast. First it was Assam in 2016, where the BJP bagged 61 of the 126 seats in the state Assembly, just two short of the halfway mark. Despite this, the BJP is tolerating the regional party.

The writer is a political commentator and editor-in-chief of Northeast Live, the only English-language satellite news channel in the Northeast. It won one seat when party candidate B. But among the first announcements that MNF leader Zoramthanga made after the victory was that his party would continue to support the NDA and remain a part of NEDA.It was in this backdrop that the Mizoram elections were held. The BJP had been contesting elections China Party Tent for sale in Mizoram since 1993. The Congress Party too tried to push the MNF to the wall by saying it had a secret alliance with the BJP, but that allegation did not work.There are several other takeaways from the Mizoram elections that indicate the possible voter behaviour in the coming days. In Nagaland, a Christian-dominated state, the BJP won 12 seats and became a part of the government led by the regional NDPP. Can the MNF then be credited with halting the BJP’s march in the Northeast? The BJP may have opened its account in Mizoram, but it has not done as well as it expected. But the BJP, with superfast manoeuvres, stitched up an alliance with the National People’s Party, the Naga People’s Front and others. Mr Chakma had joined the BJP after deserting the Congress, and therefore many said it should be considered a personal victory for Mr Chakma rather than a BJP win. The BJP had a deputy chief minister installed. By taking this stand, the MNF gained considerable backing from the powerful Church in Mizoram that had been apprehensive of the BJP and its "Hindutva ideology" spreading in the largely Christian state.Can the BJP then take the Northeast for granted in 2019? Perhaps not.

The relevance of regionalism in the country was further demonstrated by another regional party, the Zoram People’s Movement, led by former IPS officer Lalduhoma, which has emerged as the main Opposition party in Mizoram by winning eight seats. That the BJP was fighting its first serious election in Mizoram was indicated by the fact that it put up candidates in 39 of the 40 seats.Ahead of 2019, the BJP in the Northeast is strong no doubt, but does not appear to be invincible, as the MNF has demonstrated. When the BJP realised that the MNF, its constituent in the regional platform NEDA, was not going to enter into an alliance, the party decided to go it alone. Five-time chief minister Lal Thanhawla lost both the seats he had contested from (Champhai South and Serchhip).Mizoram needs funds from the Centre to rebuild its moribund roads and other basic infrastructure, and that appears to be the primary reason why the MNF or Mr Zoramthanga for that matter has said they would continue to back the NDA.True, the MNF helped the BJP fulfil its stated objective of achieving a "Congress-mukt Northeast", but at the same time, the MNF has actually halted the BJP juggernaut in the region.The little-noticed elections to the 40-member Mizoram Assembly came up with a far-reaching verdict — the victory of regionalism in the form of the Mizo National Front (MNF) winning an absolute majority, with 26 seats. The margin by which the Congress has been defeated — it managed only five seats despite being in power for 10 years at a stretch — demonstrates an absolute rout of the party. Therefore, the Mizoram polls were seen as a direct battle between Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi — the former anxious about retaining a stronghold in the region, and the latter desperate to open the BJP’s account in the state. The MNF refused to have any alliance with the BJP in the state, saying that there was a serious "clash of ideologies" between the two parties. But one cannot deny the fact that the BJP has opened its account in Mizoram. That was no problem because its regional allies, the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bodoland People’s Front, had won enough seats.

.New Delhi: The Congress is facing an "existential crisis", senior party leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday said, pitching for "a collective effort" by party leaders to "overcome" the challenges it faced from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. The party really is in deep crisis," he said, when asked whether the threat of "poaching" of MLAs posed by the BJP in Gujarat had forced the party to transport its MLAs to Karnataka to ensure party leader Ahmed Patel’s victory in the Rajya Sabha polls."I think in all probability, Rahul Gandhi will take charge (as Congress president) before the end of 2017," he said. Huge challenge for us," he said. We must recognise this Wholesale Foldable Gazebos is a big challenge."We have to understand we are up against Mr Modi, Mr Shah."Asked if there is anyone in the Congress party to give a strong challenge to Modi in 2019 elections, Ramesh said, "I have always maintained that it is the collective strength of the Congress that will overcome Mr Modi not some individual magic wand"."I thought it will happen in 2015, it didn’t happen. The party had also faced "electoral crisis" in 1977 when it lost the elections held soon after the emergency."Ramesh, representing Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha, expressed hope that the "revival" of Congress will happen in Karnataka next year as it had happened 40 years ago in 1978 in Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat in the state which gave political rebirth to Indira Gandhi who faced defeat in Rae Bareli in the elections held after the Emergency.

It is not an electoral crisis. State elections, national elections."I have only expectation.He said the Congress party must also recognise that India has changed."But today, I would say that the Congress is facing an existential crisis.He said he had "no" indication about appointment of Rahul Gandhi as Congress president. "Old slogans don’t work, old formulas don’t work, old mantras don’t work.He said Nitish Kumar’s return to the Indian fold was a big setback for anti-BJP coalition in the country, describing it as a "completely betrayal of the mandate" given to the Mahagathbandhan by the people of Bihar.He said it was wrong for the Congress party to think that anti-incumbency will work automatically against the Modi-led government in the states being ruled by the BJP in the elections..and this type of thing . I thought it will happen in 2016, it didn’t happen. They don’t want to see old mantras, old slogans.He said the Congress had faced "electoral crisis" from 1996 to 2004 when it was out of power.

That’s all.Ramesh also said that business as usual approach will not work against Modi and Shah and advocated for a flexibility in approach to make Congress relevant.He, however, justified the Gujarat Congress’s decision to send 44 of its MLAs to a resort in party-ruled Karnataka on July 29 to fend off the alleged "poaching" attempts by BJP, saying the saffron party had also "transported" MLAs in the past.Ramesh, who shares a personal rapport with Kumar, said, "personally, I was aghast, astonished, deeply disappointed, but we have to move on and we don’t have time. I feel that it may happen before the end of 2017," Ramesh said."I think there is a lot of goodwill for the Congress, a lot of support for the Congress but people want to see a new Congress. We have to completely redo the way of thinking, the way of acting, the way of projecting, the way of communicating. India has changed, the Congress party has to change," he said.. And they think differently, they act differently, and if we are not flexible in our approach, we will become irrelevant, frankly," the Congress leader said. In 2018 and 2019 you will be busy with elections..Ramesh took a potshots at party leaders who still behave as if the party is still in power."It has to be a collective effort," he said.The former union minister hoped that party vice-president Rahul Gandhi would end the uncertainty over his taking over as the Congress president to make the party ready for crucial electoral battles in key states in 2018 and the Lok Sabha polls scheduled a year later.The senior leader lamented that he had been proved wrong in the past about his prediction about Rahul’s assuming charge of the top party job. So I am the wrong person to ask this question."The sultanate has gone, but we behave as if we are sultans still."Yes, the Congress party is facing a very serious crisis," Ramesh said in an interview.uncertainty is not good," and urged the Gandhi scion to "finish it off.