Mainstream WeeklyIs INDIA Bloc alive or has Rahul Gandhi dug its grave and put it to rest forever. So it seems, and worse the Congressmen specially those two power hungry Congress MLAs in Tamil Nadu Assembly who became ministers in this very suspect TVK government are gloating about it. Never mind that they have entered the Tamil Nadu assembly on the shoulders of its leader and outgoing chief minister M.K. Stalin.
The Tamil Nadu Congress had laid a precondition before offering the support letter to Vijay whose TVK was 8 MLAs short of a clear majority in the newly elected Tamil Nadu assembly giving a shocking defeat not just to the DMK which had done good work in last five years but of all the fellows making its president and outgoing chief minister M.K. Stalin lose his seat as well. That was the biggest shock.
Immediately the Congress which had been out of power in Tamil Nadu for several decades and whom the DMK was not willing to accommodate in its government, despite generously leaving winning seats for the Congress candidates, without so much as saying a polite goodbye to its most steadfast ideological partner in the INDIA bloc, rushed into the TVK arms. And Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi wasted no time to endorse this decision ostensibly to keep the BJP out of power..
The Congress and later, at its instance, the Left and even the Muslim League extended support to Vijay’s government, which won the vote of confidence with sections of AIADMK breaking away to embrace the charismatic Tamil film star Jose Vijay. But it has now come out in the media that it was the financial support of Martin Santiago, the lottery king of India, the biggest contributor to the BJP’s electoral bonds scheme, which the Supreme Court finally struck down as illegal, which brought the TVK to power. So, Santiago is the real bridge between the NDA government and the TVK. His Son-in-law Aadhav Arjuna, a former national-level basketball player and political strategist, spearheaded TVK’s data-driven election campaigns and successfully contested on a TVK ticket. Santiago’s wife Leema Rose Martin became a MLA on AIADMK ticket but is supporting the TVK party and son Jose Charles Martin who floated his own party, the Latchiya Jananayaga Katchi, is also supporting the TVK government. Naturally then the TVK government is on a very strong leg. But its bridge to the NDA government at the Centre, or rather to the BJP itself is no more a secret now. Perhaps that is why during Vijay’s swearing in, under Home Minister Amit Shah’s orders, Vande Matram was sung in full before the formalty of playing the national anthem also.
On May 23 the Youth wing of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam (DMK) met in Chennai where it formally passed a resolution identifying the Congress party aa a back stabber and an opportunist. The resolution pointed out that the Congress party (which evidently lacks any mass base in Tamil Nadu) reached the assembly and before that Parliament with the efforts of the DMK workers since the Congress has no grass roots workers capable of any field work, reported The Hindu. The meeting was addressed by DMK president Stalin and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Udayanidhi Stalin. It reminded the Congress how it won the five assembly seats and earlier a Rajya Sabha seat only with DMK help.
"The craving for power has blunted the brain of the oldest political movement which could not show minimum decency" the resolution adopted at the meeting stated, according to The Hindu/
Immediately, without feeling contrite, Congress Legislature Party leader and a minister in Vijay’s ministry retorted that this charge had only shown that the DMK had learnt no lesson from its electoral defeat. Meanwhile, the new Congress-led UDF government in Kerala has trained its guns on the outgoing CPM chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan welcoming the Enforcement Directorate raids on Vijayan’s premises.
Since the BJP lost a majority in the 18th Lok Sabha after the 2024 elections, despite all the support of the then Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, the BJP has not lost a single state assembly election till date. But once CEC Gyanesh Kumar Gupta set in motion the process of wholesale disenfranchisement of the lakhs and lakhs of people first in Bihar and then more blatant in Bengal it is now amply clear that there is no hope of any party, other than the BJP, coming to power through even a semblance of free and fair elections. And earlier this week the Supreme Court has upheld the EC disenfranchisement exercise. As analyst and political activist Yogendra Yadav said in his interview to The Wire’s Arfa Khanum Sherwani that the judgement did not shock him for it had shown enough signs which way it was going. But yes, it saddened and hugely disappointed him.
In this scenario the need for a strong and united Opposition to stand and question this government in one voice is more urgent and acute than never before in these last 12 years of Modi rule. But, the Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi instead of strengthening the bonds in the INDIA bloc is apparently allowing it to wither away. Just you wait and see how that Yogi will return to power a third time and no amount of effort of the Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav, even in alliance with the Congress, will be able to shake him because the EC has already disenfranchised those suspected by the BJP to vote against it.
What promise Rahul’s yatra’s had evoked in the run up to the 2024 general elections! But now the DMK has decided to sit at a distance from the Congress in the Lok Sabha. The CPM too is angry and losing trust in Rahul’s leadership. Mamata is down and out and desperately seeking the INDIA bloc support but INDIA bloc is itself in tatters. What hope do we have of any challenge to this government? None, as I see it.