Kumar Bahukhandi
Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha. (Image: X)
Author
Raghav Chadha is no longer seen or heard, fueling speculation that he is exploring other options — which does not exclude the BJP
The first phase of the Bihar elections is over and campaigning for the next one is now underway, but the rumblings in the Congress camp refuse to die down. While Rahul Gandhi’s absence during the contentious seat-sharing negotiations still rankles with the Congress leaders, Krishna Allavaru, the party’s Bihar in-charge, has been giving them the most grief.
Not only is Mr. Allavaru blamed for the faulty selection of candidates, but he has further invited the wrath of the cadre for his inaccessibility. Since he has proved to be elusive, the state unit representatives who wished to meet Mr. Allavaru regarding poll strategy and other campaign issues devised a smart strategy to corner him once they learned that the Bihar in-charge enjoyed a leisurely breakfast every morning at a Patna five-star hotel.
Suddenly, the hotel management found their restaurant serving breakfast teeming with Congress leaders who would arrive at 8:45 a.m., knowing that Mr. Allavaru would be down by 9:15 a.m. Some of them hovered around his table while others even went as far as to spend their own money on breakfast just so they could join tables with Mr. Allavaru to get his undivided attention. Not sure if this strategy paid off.
A few days before polling day, former IAS officer and Union Power Minister R.K. Singh sought to put the Bihar government in a spot, alleging that a massive ₹62,000-crore scam has been detected in the state’s power sector. According to him, the public exchequer had suffered huge financial losses as a private company was allowed to charge inflated rates.
These charges would normally stir a storm and create panic in the ruling alliance, but the BJP leadership appears unconcerned. The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies are going ahead with their campaign, convinced that these allegations will not impact their electoral prospects as their well-oiled machinery will see them through. Not only have the party cadres been keeping a punishing schedule, but the BJP is also said to have enlisted the help of several other groups, including 300-odd astrologers who are doing the rounds to set the narrative in favour of the BJP–Janata Dal (United) alliance.
It appears that Rajya Sabha member Milind Deora forgot that he is now with the BJP when he posted on X about the enthusiastic response in India to Zohran Mamdani’s election as the next mayor of New York City. “It’s that season again, when India’s self-proclaimed urban intelligentsia will obsess over Zohran Mamdani’s New York mayoral win, yet have no clue who their own city’s mayor is,” Mr. Deora remarked.
He was promptly told on X that the question he should be asking is how long ago Mumbai had a mayor. Mr. Deora clearly overlooked the fact that his newly adopted party, the BJP, is in power but has not called for corporation elections in Mumbai for the past three years on one pretext or another.
The state government has to necessarily schedule the municipal and other local body elections in Mumbai and Maharashtra after the Supreme Court ordered that this process be completed by the end of January next year.
That the once-visible and vocal Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha is out of favour is no secret. He is no longer seen or heard, fueling speculation that he is exploring other options — which does not exclude the BJP.
There is a serious trust deficit between him and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, which first manifested itself when Mr. Chadha was stripped of his charge of Punjab. The break is now complete as the office he occupied at Delhi’s Punjab Bhavan has been closed and his staff withdrawn. Similarly, Mr. Chadha no longer has the use of a room allotted to him at Delhi’s Kapurthala House, the security provided to him by the Punjab government has been pulled out, and the house where Mr. Chadha stayed when in Chandigarh is also closed for him.
AAP insiders maintain Mr. Chadha is biding his time and keeping a low profile till he makes his next move. According to the political grapevine, movie star Priyanka Chopra, also Mr. Chadha’s wife’s cousin, is helping him since she has strong BJP connections.
The AAP is hoping Mr. Chadha will leave on his own, for it stands to lose a Rajya Sabha seat if it expels him. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta is fast acquiring the reputation of a photo-op CM.
There is not a day when she is not snapped participating in a puja, patting slum children, listening to the problems of women working in the informal sector, or inaugurating some government programme or the other.
BJP insiders maintain that the reality is that the functioning of the Delhi government is monitored and supervised directly by the Prime Minister’s Office, while the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has deputed its nominees to the Chief Minister’s Office.
And yet, there is no discernible action on fixing the Capital’s broken infrastructure, improving waste management, or managing the city’s pollution levels.
The writer is a Delhi-based journalist.
