In last election a slogan was doing round – Modi tujhse bair nahi, Vasundhara teri khair nahi. BJP won all the 25 Lok Sabha seats and Narendra Modi became Prime Minister. But Vasundhara Raje got ousted in Rajasthan.
This election another similar sounding slogan is getting popular- Gehlot tujhse bair nahin, MLA teri khair nahi.
Ashok Gehlot admitted that the slogan is the fact. He said he has received several complaints about MLAs. But at the same time he says that there is no alternative to these MLAs.
“There is no allegation against me. There is anti incumbency against MLAs. People are angry with them. But tickets are denied only when there is alternative,” Gehlot said.
So if there is anti incumbency against MLAs and even then they are fielded in elections and they lose on that account, How Gehlot is going to repeat the government?
“Whatever Gehlot says has a deep meaning. Even before elections kick off, he is saying that there is anger against MLAs. So if Congress loses, he has an excuse ready that the verdict is not against his government but against MLAs. And if Congress wins, he can claim that despite anti incumbency against MLAs, he (Gehlot) has been able to pull off victory by virtue of his government's good work,” opined Rameshwar Singh, a political observer, who has seen seven elections.
There are 28 members in Gehlot's cabinet. But Gehlot will be needing at least 100 MLAs to repeat government. Combating anti incumbency at assembly segment level is not an easy task for any government.
“MLAs are chosen and rejected on basis of local issues. The performance of chief minister or state government has little role to play. If an MLA has been behaving rudely or involved in corruption, he can't win just on CM's face of honesty. So anti incumbency against MLAs is a major factor to be looked into while deciding tickets,” said Rajeev Verma, a political analyst.
He said that for a party which has a history of 138 years it's unfortunate that there is no alternative to poorly performing
MLAs.
“It's a dangerous signal party should not ignore. This shows lack of interest of honest and good people in party. Congress should do something proactively to rope in better politicians to have more alternatives,” Verma said.
Vivek Shukla is a management graduate who has worked in corporate worked for 20 years and is now pursuing his passion — news.
