Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s handshake with Adarsh-tainted former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in Aurangabad on Wednesday underlines the pulls and pressures of on-ground politics.
Mr. Gandhi, instrumental in getting Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to overturn his Cabinet’s decision on the housing scam report in January, shared the dais with the Marathwada “strongman” during a political rally.
While it is not clear what role Mr. Ashok Chavan will play in the election campaign, the meeting and the handshake make it clear that he is no longer a political untouchable for Mr. Gandhi.
“By shaking hands, the signal has gone to Congress leaders across the State that Mr. Ashok Chavan is no longer a political orphan,” Surendra V Jondhale, who teaches Political Science at Mumbai University, told this correspondent.
Analysts believe that it is not just the Congress but the BJP as well that is facing pressure to accommodate tainted leaders. The former Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa is back in the party and the Reddy brothers-linked BSR Congress’s “merger” with the BJP has turned controversial.
“This pressure extends across political parties and they will have to keep negotiating the line between clean politics and political realities,” says Suhas Palshikar, political analyst at Pune University. Taking note of the objections raised by senior leader Sushma Swaraj to the merger of the BSR Congress, Prof. Palshikar argued this was part of the inner-party balance in the BJP. “It’s an effort to keep Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at bay,” he said.
At a time when corruption is being used as a big political stick to beat parties with, it is difficult to defend the Congress alliance with convicted leader Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar or Venod Sharma, former Congress politician, hopping on the bandwagon of a BJP ally in Haryana.
P.K. Dutta, who teaches Political Science in Delhi University, felt there was a trade-off between tainted leaders and the perception of how important the issue of corruption was.
“They [the Congress and the BJP] are giving the Aam Aadmi Party an issue [of tainted leaders] on a platter. It’s only going to ratify the AAP charge that the Congress and the BJP are the same side of the dirty coin,” Prof. Dutta asserted.
With the poll bugle sounded and the first phase of polling exactly a month away, expect more pressure on political parties to accommodate those with a tainted tag.
