Prasada’s defection points to a bigger problem | Economic Times

CWC member Jitin Prasada’s defection to the BJP has advertised the growing desperation within the UP Congress unit over the realisation that it is heading nowhere in the run-up to the assembly polls. More “unhappy leaders” of UP Congress, including some from within the AICC set-up and the Amethi-Rae Bareli turf of the Gandhis, would be taking the ‘Prasada route’, it is said.Prasada, despite a hat-trick of electoral defeats, being lapped by the BJP is seen as its desperate attempt to set up pre-poll atmospherics in UP amid Covid-19 and farm laws issues and reported ‘Brahmin uneasiness’ with the state’s BJP regime. If Prasada, for all his ‘empowerment’ by the UPA regime, AICC and CWC — like his late father Jitendra Prasada with all his decorations by the two PMOs, AICC and UP PCC — could not sway the ‘UP Brahmin votes’ for the Congress, how the BJP leadership will present this ‘catch’ before the established ‘Sangh Parivar Brahmin leaders’ of UP will be enlightening in due course.Yet, the fact that Prasada jumped ship even after “Rahul-Priyanka won him over” –– from among the letter-writing Congress change seekers –– by making him AICC in-charge of West Bengal, speaks volumes of Prasada’s pole vaulting and the Gandhi siblings’ ‘hold’ and ‘loyalty grooming’. He becomes the latest of Team Rahul members, after Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashok Tanwar, Alpesh Thakur, Ashok Chowdhury and Priyanka Chaturvedi to ‘cross-over’ even as Pilot, Deora, Nirupam and Sidhu blow hot and cold from the fence. Being part of the elite networking club of ‘Hereditary Turks’, Jitin, like Scindia, avoided taunting “pals” Rahul and Priyanka while parting.“Rahul ji and Priyanka ji should know we all can be termed ‘Congress old guard’ only because we have grown old by staying in the Congress, unlike the brats who run away from fights within and against political rivals,” joked a senior Congress leader.After the Rahul-Priyanka-led Congress war-cry ended in whimper in UP in the last three elections –– winning just two out of 80 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, one out of 80 in the 2019 LS polls and just seven out of the 403 seats in the 2017 assembly polls –– most Congresspersons now stare at a dark tunnel as Project Priyanka to revive the UP Congress has failed to click in the past four years, as seen in the bypolls and panchayat elections. Further, the left-over UP Congress too is being torn by internal rifts, with some sections resisting what they called “arbitrary imposition of outsiders and mediocrity”.This makes SP (and BSP) to cold shoulder the Congress bid for piggybacking an alliance — unless the Gandhis swallow their pride and settle with SP by accepting 40-odd leftover seats “for secular unity”, as some say. Post-Bihar results, the voting pattern in West Bengal polls also drove home the point to UP Congresspersons that the anti-BJP segments would rather vote for the strongest anti-BJP party (as they did for Trinamool in West Bengal), SP in UP, or BSP in some areas, than waste it on ‘vote-katawa’ parties, as Congress-Left-ISF front experienced.Interestingly, Prasada was all dressed up to join the BJP before the last polls too but developed ‘runaway groom syndrome’ at the last minute. As he finally walked the aisle, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinathe recalled how Gandhis groomed his career (despite his father once challenging Sonia Gandhi) by making him an MP, minister, CWC member etc. Yet, Rajya Sabha LoP Mallikarjun Kharge’s comment — “Jaane wale jaate rehte hain, we can’t stop them. It was his decision, he also had a future here. However, it is unfortunate” –– amplified the state of Congress leadership.