One of the last citadels of the Congress in the south—Puducherry—collapsed a month before the Union Territory goes to polls. And like always, curtains came down on the grand old party’s government due to inner-party contradictions, a few resignations, and some nudging (speculated as such) by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which gleefully watched the drama unfold even as the Gandhi scion, Rahul Gandhi, was kickstarting the party campaign in the region.
While Congress leaders cried hoarse and blamed the BJP for grazing into their pastures as they have done craftily in many of the Congress-ruled states in the past few years, in the cut-throat political landscape ultimately who wins and stays afloat is what matters. Sad but true! Be it Sikkim or Madhya Pradesh, poor management of its flock by the Congress and master strokes of poaching have brought the Congress on its knees and the party out of the corridors of power more than once.
The BJP’s move to remove former IPS-turner-politician Kiran Bedi, who was appointed by the BJP itself, also has had significant speculation on how the party wants to exert control on the area with elections around the corner. Kiran Bedi has been historically perceived to work as an efficient administrator rather than a hardcore politician though former Puducherry CM V. Narayanasamy was always blatant about his apprehensions that she was working in tandem with the Centre to destabilise his government.
The politics of Puducherry is linked closely to Tamil Nadu as well, where elections have been announced, making it more than a reason for BJP to closely monitor the Union Territory. BJP has been taking steps to build their own narrative in the space with Narendra Modi even getting his CovidVaccine shot on the 1st of Marchat AIIMS from a Puducherry nurse.
The BJP’s credo of ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ is still piping hot for the mandarins in the ruling party as they leave no stone unturned to unsettle arch-rival Congress, even if it means everything that it always stood against it in the past.
Photograph by Election Commisson of india