For whatever reason the ‘˜Bhaisaab’ in the political circuits, Alvi, chose to write this letter to Sonia, one question remains: Why not contest from Vadodara too? The question remains valid for Kejriwal, Sharma, Digvijay and whoever else wishes to extend its head to Congress high command as offering.
It seems standing against BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in election has become a new fad.
Now Congress leader Rashid Alvi has written to high command expressing his desire to run against Modi in Varanasi. After Commerce Minister Anand Sharms, Alvi is the second person who wants to take on Modi.
“For the first time, the idea of secular India is under threat. India has a liberal tradition and plural in nature because of which secularism has flourished. The majority of the countrymen has played a crucial and a progressive role in upholding liberal and secular values enshrined in our Constitution, imagined and ingrained by the founding fathers of our Republic,” said Alvi in his letter to Sonia Gandhi.
Modi is contesting from two seats – Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi in UP. The Varanasi fight is in limelight because AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal too is standing from the same seat.
In Vadodara, Congress has fielded Madhusudan Mistry, a senior party leader seen as close to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. The Congress party has yet not decided as who to field against Modi in Varanasi. The names that have been doing rounds are of senior leader Digvijay Singh and Sharma. Alvi’s wish has given a fresh angle to the fight.
Interestingly, those who talk about taking Modi head on are not attempting to fight him in all fronts. Neither Kejriwal showed any interest in contesting from the second seat Vadodara nor any of the Congress leader, be it Mistry or Alvi or Singh or Sharma, all want to fight from Varanasi.
This is probably because Varansi takes a special place in the Hindi heartland where, unlike Vadodara, there may be chance of getting anti-Modi votes. But all the leaders are choosing to ignore the fact that politically sharp population of Varanasi has till now not shown any inclination towards any leader but Modi.
The inability of Congress to come up with “a name as strong as Modi” in words of P Chidamabaram is a manifestation of the fact that Modi’s position in Varanasi or elsewhere is quite powerful.
The other thing which should be noted is that AAP is working in tandem with the Congress party when it comes to candidature from a seat. Till now, it has not put any candidate against Sonia Gandhi or any other senior leader of Congress. It is another matter altogether that most of the Congress leaders have chosen to take the route of Rajya Sabha to the parliament as they are aware of ati-congress wave in the country.
The latest is that AAP candidate from Farrukhabad, from where Congress leader Salman Khurshid is contesting, gave up his Lok Sabha ticket today. Dr Kumar Vishwas of AAP is running from Amethi against Rahul Gandhi because he had declared it long back.
In the light of these things, Congress may try to field a candidate who, may be able to cut Modi votes to make it easier for itself and Kejriwal.
Just three weeks ago, Alvi was slamming Congress high command over Jat reservations saying that it sent a “wrong signal” to the Muslim community after the Muzaffarnagar riots. “To award reservation to a particular community after massive riots in Muzaffarnagar has given a wrong signal to the people at large and Muslim community in particular,” Alvi had said.
He had ene said that Muzaffarnagar riots were worse than 2002 Gujarat riots and had slammed UP government as well as Congress for the same.
At that time, given the discord, it was speculated that Alvi may join BJP. His letter to Sonia expressing his suicidal wish may be an indication that he is trying to make up with Sonia Gandhi.
For whatever reason the ‘Bhaisaab’ in the political circuits, Alvi, chose to write this letter to Sonia, one question remains: Why not contest from Vadodara too? The question remains valid for Kejriwal, Sharma, Digvijay and whoever else wishes to extend its head to Congress high command as offering.
Varanasi votes on May 12 and the results will be out on May 16.
