Gujarat: Act as ‘real Opposition’, Congress warns MLAs

Upset over the “feeble” protests on the Anar Patel issue, the Congress high command has warned party MLAs in Gujarat that their renomination could be in jeopardy if they failed to act as “real Opposition” to the Prime Minister in his home state.

The Assembly elections in the state are scheduled towards the end of next year and the main Opposition party is sensing an opportunity following its success in the local bodies polls four months back.

A central leader, who declined to be identified, said ahead of the just-concluded session of the state Assembly, the high command had asked the MLAs to take up the Anar Patel issue in a big way.

The issue concerns controversial land allotment to entities associated with Ms Anar Patel, daughter of chief minister Anandiben Patel. The AICC has also been using the issue to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him, time and again, of “blatantly plundering” public land when he was Gujarat chief minister. It has been demanding a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe. The party also wanted Ms Anandiben Patel to resign or be sacked immediately to ensure a fair probe. Its stand is that allotment of 250 acres of government land next to the “Gir Lion Sanctuary without following any procedure or valuation or price determination for a pittance” was in gross violation of all norms, procedures and regulations governing allotment of public land. Party sources said the AICC was not happy with the way party MLAs were “lukewarm” to its direction in the initial days of the Assembly session and were made it known that their working was being monitored and it could have a bearing on their renomination. The Congress high command’s direction bore a belated result towards end of March when 55 party MLAs present in the Gujarat Assembly were suspended for the rest of the session after they shouted slogans in support of Patel quota agitation and waved placards on the Anar Patel issue.

The suspension on March 30 took place just a day before the session was to conclude.

They displayed banners with ‘Hardik ne Jail, Anar ne Mehel’ (Hardik in jail, Anar Patel in palace) written on it and engaged in aggressive slogan-shouting. Hardik leads the pro-Patel quota stir and is in jail on charges of sedition.

Incidentally, the AAP is also raising the issue as part of its attempt to make inroads into the western state where the politics has, by and large, been bipolar for the last many years.

Out of power for 20 years, the Congress made a stunning comeback in the rural areas in December last year by winning 21 of the 31 district panchayats. The BJP had won 30 district panchayats in the previous elections in 2010.

The loss in Panchayati Raj bodies in Gujarat had come more than a year after Modi, who ruled the state for 12 straight years, shifted to Delhi in May 2014.

The Congress was virtually obliterated from all tiers of power structure in the state after losing almost every election to the BJP in the 12 years before that when Modi helmed the state.