Gehlot, in-charge of Gujarat Congress, had doubled the number of BJP seats in 2017

In the Rajya Sabha elections, he kept his MLAs intact and made the BJP MLA cross-vote

India may or may not be an agricultural country now, but an electoral country is needed. Regular elections are going on somewhere in the country.

Elections for a total of 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states, including the largest state in the country, Uttar Pradesh, which held assembly elections in March, intensified political activity. The Gujarat Assembly elections will have taken place where its results and changing equations will work. The Rajya Sabha elections held yesterday did not involve the direct participation of the people, but a review of the results would be necessary for the internal equations of the various states as well as for the strengthening of the BJP-ruled government at the Center.

Gehlot's first wound

The name of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has to be considered as one of the few Congress leaders who are considered capable of countering the aggressive and multi-tiered politics of the BJP. When Gehlot was in charge of the Gujarat Congress in 2017, he performed a miracle by bringing the BJP to double digits in the Assembly elections. He later succeeded in bringing the Congress to power in his own province. At the state level, he has to face a permanent challenge from youth leader Sachin Pilot. Pilot has twice taken a stand against him, and both times Gehlot has bowed to him, but this internal tension has been a permanent hardship for Congress, which has prevented the Congress high command from giving a significant place at the national level to a militant strategist like Gehlot.

In the tradition of rustic wrestling, after beating the opponent, he has to say wax to admit defeat. In Rajya Sabha election wrestling, Gehlot called a strong and mature rival like BJP a wax, which must be considered a significant success. There were five candidates against four seats in the Rajya Sabha. According to the strength of the Legislative Assembly, the Congress has 108, the BJP 71, the Independents 13 and a total of 5 MLAs from other parties. According to this calculation, Congress can get three seats and BJP can get one seat. However, the BJP fielded Media King Subhash Chandra as the fifth candidate as an independent, which led to the possibility of cross-voting in the Congress camp. This was the BJP's persuasion to take advantage of the sharp factionalism in the Congress. If cross-voting takes place, Gehlot's opposition camp will gain strength and the rebellion against the state government will intensify. Even if nothing like that happens, the morale of the state government will go down which will have an obvious effect on the next assembly elections.

Not a defensive, aggressive approach

The BJP did the same in Rajasthan as it does in all other states. From independent legislators to smaller parties. After that, attempts were made to sabotage the Congress. Gehlot did not respond defensively, but aggressively. He started offering to break BJP MLAs against him. This meant that instead of the Congress having to take its members to resorts or hotels to save them, the BJP had to encamp its own MLAs here. However, Congress' Pramod Tiwari won by just one vote over a BJP MLA by the name of Shobhara and media king Subhash Chandra has lost. Pramod Tiwari needed 41 votes to win and got 41 votes due to Shobharani's cross-voting.

Size increased, liability increased?

In this election, the Rajya Sabha has won only one seat, but the increase in the morale of the provincial Congress will be very valuable. Gehlot has once again overtaken the BJP in the tactics required for politics. The Congress is in dire need of such a strategist at the national level as well. Given the fact that the Congress is currently lagging behind in every province, a leader like Gehlot should now be given a big responsibility at the national level, not only in the way he has worked in Rajasthan or in Gujarat as in-charge. But whether this will happen is a big question mark. The Congress leadership is accustomed to playing hide-and-seek around the Gandhi-Nehru family, so even if Gehlot is given national-level responsibility, he will not be spared. In those circumstances, even Gehlot would not like to be ruled by Delhi by leaving the rule of Rajasthan.

Fadnavis Master in Maharashtra

Maharashtra is upside down from Rajasthan. Devendra Fadnavis has managed to make a raid here despite the tight fencing of Shiv Sena and NCP. Here, both the grand alliance and the BJP were eyeing an independent candidate. Fadnavis has finally succeeded in gaining the support of independent candidates, which has resulted in an increase of one BJP seat. However, according to the arithmetic, one candidate each from Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress has managed to reach the Rajya Sabha.