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| 2009 witnessed rise of Congress, decline of BJP |
| Sunil Gatade/PTI / New Delhi Dec 31, 2009, 11:43 IST |
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Rise of Congress, further decline of BJP and the relegation of the Left and some regional parties to the margins marked the highs and lows of politics in 2009 as price spiral poses an intense challenge to the government in the new year along with Naxal and cross-border terror.
The sudden demise of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash saw Congress flounder in Andhra Pradesh, a state he had delivered to the party on a platter in two consecutive elections. Topping it, the Centre tied itself up in knots over the separate Telangana by its flip-flop as the year wrapped up.
2009 turned out to be a watershed year for Indian politics with Congress' good showing in the Lok Sabha polls, especially displaying revival signs in a state like Uttar Pradesh that has also raised hopes of its comeback in the Hindi heartland.
Against the backdrop of Mumbai terror attacks and the negative effects of a global downturn, the Congress campaign in the May elections was it was no time to experiment with any new combination.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the first Congress Prime Minister outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to get a second consecutive term. In fact, the Congress tally of over 200 in the 543-member Lok Sabha, 50 seats more than it got in 2004, surprised even many a Congressman.
No political party had got such numbers after 1991 with election after election witnessing a fractured verdict. The year ringing out will be remembered for the failure of the BJP as also the Left parties to get their act together and virtually living in a different world which came crashing after the electoral verdict of May 16.
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat led the charge of the Third Front which consisted the BSP, RLD, JD-S, AIADMK and the Left parties, which came a cropper. In fact, the elections generally did not turn out to be good for many regional parties barring the likes of Navin Patnaik's BJD and Nitish Kumar's JD (United).
The BJP got nothing right despite projecting L K Advani, its 'iron man' as the 'strong' leader in comparison with a 'weak' Manmohan Singh as much water had flown from the Ganga since the Ayodhya issue took it to the centrestage.
BJP was in the battle gear too early but the tactics and strategy of the Congress appeared to have stumped it with the ruling party projecting the "trinity" of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi to telling effect.
It was a year when Rahul Gandhi came into his own as a leader as he successfully led the battle in key Uttar Pradesh giving sleepless nights to the BSP and the SP.
The Firozabad Lok Sabha bypoll in which Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Dimple was defeated, was indicative of the changing winds.
With BJP's tally in the Lok Sabha reduced from 138 to 116, it was time for a generational change as 52-year-old Nitin Gadkari took over the reins from Rajnath Singh while Advani himself made way for Sushma Swaraj as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
The Left parties got the severest drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections held in the backdrop of the Nandigram incident and the developments at Singur in West Bengal which were exploited to the hilt by Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee.
In fact, the Left parties are facing a threat to their very existence as their strongholds of West Bengal and Kerala were shaken to the roots and the assembly elections there are scheduled for 2011.
A highlight of the Lok Sabha elections was that generally those parties and leaders among UPA and allies who sided with Congress, survived or thrived, while those who tried to sideline it, almost fell by the wayside.
For instance, Lalu Prasad's RJD was down from 27 to just four and Ram Vilas Paswan met his waterloo with his LJP drawing a blank after they parted ways with Congress.
Almost similar was the fate of Samajwadi Party, which had helped the UPA-I survive after the withdrawal of the Left support to the Government. Its tally dipped from 39 to 22.
As against this, Sharad Pawar's NCP managed its place in the UPA-II by fighting the elections together with Congress even though it made noises of and on projecting Pawar as prime ministerial candidate.
Everything went right for the Congress and Gandhi even after the Lok Sabha polls as the victories in the Assembly elections of Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh were the icing on the cake.
After the BJP defeat, there was intensification of the internecine war in the party with leaders like Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha taking potshots at Arun Jaitley, who was the party's master strategist in the polls. This was also a veiled attack on Advani.
The internal tussle had a strange fallout with the abrupt expulsion of senior leader Jaswant Singh from the BJP after his book on Mohammed Ali Jinnah angered the Sangh Parivar no end.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Hindutva hardliner, who was projected by a section of the BJP as PM candidate, did a one up on Jaswant by banning the book in his state much before his expulsion.
The Liberhan Commission report on the demolition of the Babri Masjid was tabled in Parliament and it became yet another occasion for the bashing of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP, many of whose leaders including Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Vinay Katiyar were indicted by the Commission.
At the fag end of the year, Congress, however, failed to perform magic in Jharkhand where UPA constituent JMM's Shibu Soren is set to become the Chief Minister by aligning with the BJP.
A big loss for the Congress was the death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy in a chopper crash months after a spectacular return to power and making the state a powerhouse for the Congress with 33 Lok Sabha seats.
However, the rising prices of essential commodities which brought worries to the Congress and the Government by the yearend were compounded by the Centre's decision on creation of separate Telangana as it stirred a hornet's nest.
Two UPA allies DMK and NCP attacked the Congress and the government for the "haphazard" manner in which the decision was taken.
Demands for creation of new states stumped the Centre and caught the Congress leadership unawares with leaders like U P Chief Minister Mayawati adding fuel to the Telangana fire by demanding division of Uttar Pradesh.
Creation of a separate Harit Pradesh, Poorvanchal and Bundelkhand are the demands from Uttar Pradesh leaders while separate Vidarbha is an old demand of a section of people from Maharashtra and an agitation is on for a separate Gorkhaland in West Bengal.
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