Is genie back in bottle?

Euphoria over lapping Nitish Kumar in the saffron camp has a subtle hint of faultline in the great Narendra Modi script.

THE BJP chief Amit Shah idolizes India's greatest political strategist Chanakya and Hindu revivalist Veer Savarkar. Chanakya believed in a strong and rigorously trained army to expand frontiers of the kingdom and also to ward off foes. Savarkar envisioned homogenous Hindu society, and mostly undertook covert operations in pursuit of his goals. Shah believes that he's a blend of both the historical icons. 

Fired by his expansionist burst of adrenaline, Shah is eyeing to win Odisha and West Bengal. He even thinks that Kerala too will be in saffron kitty at not so distant time. The saffron flag is fluttering all across the North-east. Team Amit Shah is camping determined to uproot Manik Sircar government in Tripura. 

Yet, the saffron expansionist zeal was piped to give Nitish Kumar

lease of life to rule Bihar. Fresh from delivering morbid shock to rivals in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP seemingly acted as the henchmen of Bihar chief minister to help him shed the secular skins. From splashing documents of land deeds dating back to 1990s, Nitish's Sherpa and Bihar BJP's sole anchor Sushil Kumar Modi had been a man on a mission. Suddenly, he had all the revenue records to link Lalu Prasad clan in quid pro quo land deals.  One may wonder what the duo had been doing with the same set of records in their possession during NDA reign in the state during 2005-13.

Central investigating agencies, the CBI and ED, true to their wont of being more loyal than the king, hunted several locations to add thrill to the political drama. Lalu Prasad, convicted for corruption and barred from contesting election, was again certified corrupt along with all his clan members.           

Nitish Kumar and his Sherpa Sushil Kumar Modi delivered the alibi for another dramatic and thrilling swapping of places in the state politics. Kumar is a politician without a party as noted by the historian Ram Chandra Guha. And Sushil Kumar Modi has of late been a politician dumped by his party. Their umbilical cord helps both to remain relevant in the Bihar politics. 

That Nitish Kumar could have been a challenger to Narendra Modi had been proven a pipe dream in the course of political events after the 2014 verdict. That Modi with Kumar in saffron camp is running away with the 2019 poll is, thus, a convenient spin to a story palatable to the people. 

Despite being the deputy chief minister of Bihar for more than seven years, Sushil Kumar Modi had failed to win Amit Shah's approval to become chief ministerial face of the party in the 2015 state elections. Still, he slogged and logged highest number of manhours to stall the Mandal backlash. Shah, the Chankaya of BJP, schemed from the Chanakya hotel in Patna only to flounder and subsequently sink his party to the humiliating loss in the state. Only a year ago, the BJP had been unstoppable in Bihar, with the party led alliance winning 33 out of the total 40 Lok Sabha seats.

Sushil Kumar Modi had been slighted in the run up of the 2015 Bihar polls and thereafter, with team Amit Shah experimenting with new set of nondescript leaders to stage a comeback in the state. That Shah despite being on a whirlwind intensive tour of several states to deepen the foothold of the BJP failed to make his presence felt in Bihar in the last two years made it evident that he had not yet recovered from the 2015 drubbing.

With the BJP ship adrift on the high sea of Bihar, Sushil Kumar Modi had only to strike at the right time to take full control of the party in the state, and that could have been possible only if his aka, Nitish Kumar, was back on his side. 

The Bihar chief minister had teamed up with the BJP to put the genie of social justice in the bottle in 2005. Lalu Prasad, who has been the sole custodian of the politics of social justice in the state, hurtled to the wilderness in the next one decade. 

Time seemed to have been ripe for writing political obituary of the messiah of Mandal. But his nemesis only uncorked the bottle to

give him another day to live in 2013. Once out of the bottle, the king of "MY (Muslim-Yadav)" proved his mettle becoming the largest party after the 2015 verdict. Back in power with two sons -- Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Prasad, Lalu Prasad was remote controlling bureaucracy and gaining political strength each day. 

Time to put the genie back into the bottle had come again. And bottle was readied, but only the time will tell if the genie actually went inside. That saffron juggernaut prostrated before Nitish Kumar is indeed all to see at a time when Amit Shah is seen unstoppable.       

Corleone Lalu

ONE night in late 1990s.

The district police had suddenly become pregnant with the idea of their manhood. The 'Kaptaan' of the police personnel had shared with them the mission idea, that they would be out in the night to crush the head of the most vicious snake in the district.

With the city going to sleep in late evening, heavy shadows fell on the walls of the lanes and by-lanes leading to the den of the most vicious snake. Heavy boots thumped the ground beneath. A few windows opened. Torch flashes fell on the approaching swarm of menacing police men. With rifles slung on their shoulders and fingers on machine guns, they gave a full measure of their might to the third ring of security of the vicious snake. Shots were fired. A few henchmen killed. Scores were hand-cuffed and bundled into waiting jeeps. The second ring too was crushed in quick time. 

The den was panic stricken. The policemen were finally moments away from crushing the head of the most vicious snake. He too had given up. His hopes were lost.

Piercing the thick night with sharp red flashes, an ambassador car menacingly raced into the compound of the den. A man in his 50s alighted. His waistline was bloated, and hairline for all to count. The 'Kaptaan' and the policemen, who had been the hunting wolves of the night, became stiff at the sight of the man just out of the white ambassador. Their faces loosened. The man took the most vicious snake into his ambassador car and sped away.           

That vicious snake was Mohammed Shahabuddin, who had been a member of Parliament from the Siwan Lok Sabha constituency. The police operation was ordered by Lalu Prasad whose wife Rabri Devi had been the chief minister at that time. The man in the ambassador car was sent by Lalu Prasad. "Mohammed Shahabuddin had become a law unto himself. He thought he was bigger than Lalu Prasad. That night Lalu saved his life, but gave a message in clear terms about who was the actual boss," recounted one former aide of Lalu Prasad. 

Siwan knows that Mohammad Shahabuddin is an out and out criminal. He won elections by intimidating voters and rivals alike. He won Lok Sabha elections four times from 1996 to 2004. The law finally caught up with him in 2007 when he was convicted in one of many cases pending against him and sent to life imprisonment. He, thus, was debarred from contesting polls. 

The law caught up with Mohammad Shahabuddin at a time when Bihar woke up to the idea that it had been electing criminals for quite long time. Nitish Kumar propped up by the BJP promised to keep criminals behind the bars. He kept his words, and very soon the dreaded criminals were in jails.

Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who held on to his den in the Seemanchal of Bihar, spent long years in Tihar jail. He who once literally got one of his henchmen to push a bamboo into the rectum of an engineer became a 'Drohkal ka pathik' during his stay in Tihar. Mohammad Shahabuddin could not carve out an independent fiefdom for himself, but Pappu Yadav was able to branch out in later years.

Lalu Prasad in his heydays was arguably nothing but a replication of Vito Coreone -- the Don of Mario Puzo's trendsetter novel 'The Godfather'. Lalu's empire crumbled with the ascendance of Nitish. The mandate compelled Nitish to crack whip against the criminals and Lalu's henchmen turned politicians.

But Nitish as is true with most of the politicos never pursued any idea to its logical end. He went after the criminals turned politicos, but left them half dead. He went after the crime syndicates, but allowed them to survive. He paid scant attention to policing and improving the infrastructure of law and order apparatus. That he solicited Mohammad Taslimuddin and sought blessings of the mother of the jailed Anand Mohan Singh in the run up to the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections, besides allowing refuge in his party for the criminals from the ranks of Lalu's RJD made it evident that Nitish too sought to borrow the brand of politics of his former aka.

Six years later, Nitish and Lalu are a team. Nitish allowed Lalu to breath again in Bihar politics. He

stayed in power by joining hands with Lalu for 2015 Bihar polls. But in the process, he lost control of the genie that he allowed to come out of the shut bottle. Mohammad Shahabuddin had been running his empire from Siwan jail before being shunted out to Bhagalpur jail. Now, he's a free bird.

With Lalu getting his men back to their respective territory, it may only be a matter of days that Nitish will read the writing on the wall. That his script has awfully gone wrong is no more an idea lost to doubts. He knows better than any that Lalu can't be reigned in for long.

Nitish met Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. The obvious agenda was the issue of floods in Bihar. But some claim, they did not just talk floods.

PM Nitish in 2019?

Democracy is full of second chance. 

It all began from the iconic Gandhi Maidan in Patna in October, 2013 where substantial part of the script for 2014 battle was written. In another three months, much of the script for the 2019, still four years away, will be written in Bihar. The outcome of Bihar polls due in October this year will by all accounts set course for a political process with all eyes on the month of May four years later.

Bihar will test the 32 and 68 per cent electoral debate. That Narendra Modi commanded a mere 32 per cent of the vote share in the 2014 polls offered a cocoon of political comfort to his political rivals. The natural consequence was to offer a united political alternative to the 68 per cent Modi naysayers. 

The looming electoral challenge in Bihar made the warring "socialist" satraps to bury their hatchets. They came to believe that if they did not unite they risk being annihilated sooner. The likes of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar, Ajit Singh and Om Prakash Choutala had seen their political herds quite overwhelmingly demolished by Modi in 2014. They came to believe that the herds were broken because they were fragmented.

The political balloon of Janata Parivar taking a shape is contingent on the outcomes of Bihar polls. If its proponents succeed in Bihar in stopping Modi, it will take wings to fly on the national horizon. If it fails, it will not wither away but jolt the skeptics in the ranks to push their personal ego little back in their calculations. And efforts with full hearts unlike currently when they have pushed Nitish to fight a lonely battle against Modi will be made.

History is not on the side of Modi, for no reformist government has ever been re-elected in the country. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had the candour to advance the elections on the back of eight plus growth rate, yet Congress humbled him. India's economic reform template historically has left millions of poor in the country out of place in the shining moon. That the Maoists registered exponential growth during the times of PV Narsimha Rao and Vajpayee has well been statistically documented to warrant any further repetition.

The anti-Modi political space is currently rudderless and leaderless. They can not tolerate the idea of some one from their ranks emerging their leader. That has been the story so far, but the future is not necessarily hostage to history. And the time is ripe for one of them to sparkle the national political space. 

Among plethora of regional satraps, only Nitish and Akhilesh Yadav stand any chance to play a larger political role at the national level. Akhilesh is still a student of politics and learning the tricks of governance with much strain. But he's just about 40 years of age and has quite a long rope to swing in Indian politics. His father -- Mulayam Singh Yadav -- is in the winter of his career. In the immediate future, Akhilesh may have to cope with a lot of fratricidal war within the extended Mulayam clan to consolidate his political clout.

Nitish has been a turnaround chief minister of Bihar for a decade. His rivals have quite good reasons to call him a political opportunist, for he sheltered in the bosom of one whom he ridiculed during most part of his days in power. Yet, politics is not an abode of permanent friends and enemies; all are circumstantial. Regional satraps know in their hearts that Nitish only has stature among them to challenge the Modi hegemony.   

If he wins Bihar elections, Nitish will emerge a counterfoil of Modi immediately. If he goes down fighting, Nitish will still be in the reckoning. Bihar will have another chance to leave its mark on national political discourse and, hence, the October polls have significance much larger to its local issues. 

                                                               *****

READ MORE on possible political script of India after the Bihar elections in the Book:

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A mighty slump

That pampered lots are supremely blessed with power to self-destruct is surely a hard truth of life. Such individuals leave stories largely unheard, but those in public life leave telling tales to be told and re-told. 

And Nitish Kumar, a Prime Ministerial candidate till not long ago, has been such a masterly phenomenon of political rise and fall, that Shakespeare might have found in him a tragedy king. Political commentators can not deny being in love with him even if he is being denounced for his masterly swing to casteism from being a development icon.

Incidentally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad was political mentor of Nitish Kumar during the march of Mandal politics, which swept through Gangetic belt in 1990s. When Lalu Prasad had to quit as chief minister of Bihar, after being charge-sheeted in fodder scam, he thrust his illiterate wife, Rabri Devi, onto the state. 

That act of political expediency may have extended Lalu Prasad's reign in Bihar for a few more years, but a whole generation grew up with a sense of inferiority complex thereafter. The Congress president Sonia Gandhi aped Lalu Prasad in 2004 to pick Manmohan Singh, who was not an illiterate but an economist of high repute. But another generation has grown up with gloom during the last 10 years.

Political scientists may need to invent a term to explain this art of political expediency of thrusting somebody for personal exigency. Because, it's spreading like a virus, which has infected Nitish Kumar now. 

Some extraordinary commentators could go to the extent of claiming the anointing of Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Mahadalit hailing from Most Backward Caste (MBC), as a political masterstroke of NItish Kumar to checkmate rise of BJP in Bihar. But that will be too shallow to last a few days in public discourse. 

Jitan Manjhi

Because, Bihar inherently has a restlessness, which may not be in other states, to turn people repugnant with the very idea of casteism imprisoning governance in the state. By the way, Manjhi's administrative skill was so well acknowledged by Nitish Kumar, that he could not find for him a better ministry than the SC&ST welfare.  

Incidentally, Nitish Kumar is not the only chief minister who faced an electoral rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He is in the company of Omar Abdullah and Akhilesh Yadav. But they have reacted differently to the verdict.

In fact, Omar Abdullah is seeking to undo mistakes of his government and tweeted his e-mail id to connect with the people to learn why was he punished in such a manner. Akhilesh Yadav is seeking to shrug off the shadow of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and assert his leadership. 

But Nitish Kumar chose to relinquish the office, while "taking moral responsibility". His party chief Sharad Yadav has not yet resigned. Arguably, it can also not be ruled out that Nitish Kumar could not digest the idea of his arch-rival Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister.

Arguably, the fall and rise in political career of Nitish Kumar and Kahkashan Parveen seem so overlapping to

Kahkashan Parveen

ignore. Parveen, a little known woman from Bhagalpur, first became a municipal corporator a few years ago and since then she has been rising and rising only.

Nitish Kumar first appointed her chairperson of Bihar Commission of Women and a few months earlier shocked most of his party men by sending her to Rajya Sabha. Politically Nitish sought to send the message that he was reaching out to Muslims. He denied Rajya Sabha nominations to party heavyweights Shivanand Tiwari, NK Singh and Sabir Ali.

Within JD (U), leaders and party workers saw Nitish in his full arrogance bloom during Rajya Sabha nomination episode. And, politics is sadly no hunting grounds for arrogant lots. That Nitish was handed over worst electoral defeat confirm him having lost touch with ground realities.

Was not Nitish Kumar hailed a development icon till a few years ago? Did he not win best chief minister awards at the hands of TV channels? Did not the media hail him for turning around a state, which had a long spell of dark age under his predecessors -- Rabri Devi and Lalu Prasad? Did not the Planning Commission of India certify Bihar of having achieved highest State GDP growth among all states?

Questions are too many and they should baffle political commentators. Because, Indian democracy in the last two decades has come to reward good governance. And answers of these questions will reveal the narrow world view of Nitish Kumar and his aloofness.

State of roads in states generally give a good measure of the administrative skills of chief ministers. In his first term, Nitish Kumar won accolades for building good quality roads. His models of monitoring on real time basis was also replicated in other states.

Incidentally, by the time Nitish went to people for another mandate in 2010, he even claimed that any one can reach any part of the state from Patna in a flat six hours.

But claims were highly exaggerated. Incidentally, this blogger, believing Nitish's words, could reach half the distance that chief minister had stated in 12 hours time a year ago. And the ride had been so bumpy, that one would need full two days of rest to recover from agony of road journey.

Public at large blame Nitish Kumar in the state for having destroyed education in schools by using teacher recruitment to further his political interests. Law and order situation improved and later nose-dived.

"Nitish did not take drive against criminals in  the state to its logical conclusion. The man who was credited to have put an end to lawlessness during Lalu-Rabri time soon lost favour with Nitish and was transferred to police training institute. Nitish is running a bureaucratic government where dissent is not heard," said Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh during a conversation with this blogger two years ago. At that time Lallan Singh, after being the close confidante of Nitish Kumar, was also thrown out of the inner court of former Bihar chief minister.

And clear pitfall of a bureaucratic government is wide-spread corruption. So, greasing palms of all kinds of people in government jobs, from a beat constable to a clerk to higher ups, is the story of the second tenure of Nitish Kumar.

Surrounded by sycophants in Patna and encouraged by adulation of New Delhi media, Nitish Kumar apparently thought of himself as Navin Patnaik of Odisha, that there was no alternative to him in the state.

But his belief was utterly out of place. And he chose to self-destruct by snapping 17 years alliance with the BJP. That he did because he was convinced that weakening of the Congress meant revival of the idea of Third Front, and the BJP not being a pan-India party could at best get 180 Lok Sabha seats.

And, therefore, the JD (U) had supported Pranab Mukherjee in Presidential elections even while the BJP backed Purno Sangma. "After next year's elections, there will be instability at the Centre and, hence, we need someone like Pranab Mukherjee in Rashtrapati Bhavan," JD (U) chief Sharad Yadav had explained why his party was not going along with the BJP.

The 2014 verdict shattered all hopes of instability at the Centre. Nitish Kumar misjudged people's minds. And that he did, because he was disconnected. Incidentally, he's repeating his mistake, that of thinking that key to power in Bihar is through the caste arithmetic.

Those who do not learn from their mistakes are condemned as fools of worst orders. And Nitish should know that Indian politics has left behind arithmetic and is now flying with wings of hope.

To catch this ride he needs a mighty leap of faith, but he has chosen a mighty slump instead. 

Mainstreamed

Last two decades of Indian politics undeniably belonged to regional parties. The phenomenon, which began from south of Vindhyanchal, swept through North and East India after 1990s.  And the political march of regional parties gained force with weakening of the Congress was another tale of a weaker Centre in New Delhi.  

Arguably, massive surge in negativism in Indian politics should be singularly blamed on the weak Centre. A politically weak Prime Minister in Manmohan Singh for 10 years derailed the India story, which a surging youth population yearned for. 

But it will be short-sightedness if only Manmohan Singh was singled out for all the ills of the country. Because, regional parties largely remained slave to their poverty of ideas too. 

The story of Tamil Nadu is that of shoddy governance irrespective of the fact whether DMK or the AIADMK ruled the state. In Andhra Pradesh, beneficiaries of "good governance" of former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu were, arguably, entrepreneurs and landed gentries. Later, YSR Rajshekhar Reddy, with his thrust on foodgrains dole out, took the state further backward even though lakhs of engineering and medical graduates yearned for better lives.     

In North, Bihar under the rule of Lalu Prasad saw "dark age" for two decades. In Odisha, Navin Patnaik, enjoying legacy of his father Biju Patnaik, took refuge in cheap foodgrains dole out for his political security. In Jharkhand, misdeeds of regional parties took the state to worse days.

And the tales of Uttar Pradesh, which accounts for 80 Lok Sabha seats with a population close to 22 crore, are utterly saddening. "Mulayam ne londo (Akhilesh Yadav) no saara sadak kha gawo (Mulayam's son eat away all the roads". This is what the people in UP tell about the Samajwadi Party government, which came to power with massive mandate in 2012.

The mercurial Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee had scripted history after decimating the 32 long years of Left rule in West Bengal. But she, after three years of being sworn in as chief minister, knows only one thing of her administration, that blame all for the ills of the state. For backwardness, the Centre and Left are responsible; for rapes women are responsible; for crime Left "goons" are to be blamed and so on.  

But these regional satraps are now feeling the heat as the 2014 Lok Sabha elections are near their last leg. They are finding much to their discomfort, that people in their states are expressing openly their views to vote for "Modi Sarkar". 

"Sab ko mauka diya...ek mauka to Modi ji ko bhi milna chahiye...Behenji to PM nahi banengi (Mayawati) naa...(all have got opportunities...Modi too should get one...Mayawati can't become PM," said a Jatav woman in Mathura, who gave her name as Dolly. Incidentally, Jatavs (Dalit) are the core constituency of BSP.   

Jatavs in Mathura

The road to the political power in New Delhi surely passes through the rugged terrain of UP. And this will be better known to no other but Manmohan Singh, who lasted two full terms on the magnanimous support of both Mulayam and Mayawati.

Incidentally, Akhilesh Yadav rode on massive support of all castes, barring Dalits, to power in Lucknow in 2012. He carried the hope, that he would bring in a change in "backward-oriented" politics of Samajwadis. And, hints in the form of distribution of laptops, tablets were there. But he lost all zeal for governance or may be just got overawed in the presence of too many party stalwarts very soon. 

So, children in Mainpuri study squatting on the floor, because they do not have government schools near their villages. Those who got laptop are still learning MS Office even after one year in the hope of getting a data entry job. A course worth Rs 2,000 would have trained them for the job they appear to be seeking.

A pvt school in Mainpuri

In Puri, an executive engineer of the state rural development department lamented that the poor just did not want to work, as they got almost free rice, and even there were no zeal among them to work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). 

"Modi PM banega to Gujrat ke tarah yahan bhi tarakki hoga...yahan candidate se hamen matlab nahi...vote Modi ke naam par denge (If Modi becomes PM, even our place will develop like Gujrat. Candidates are not important, as we will vote for Modi only," said Vinod Ghiyar in Mainpuri in UP. Ghiyar was not alone, as most people on the campaign trails in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand, AP, etc., have to say the same about the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Incidentally, it was the Congress, which brought "welfarist" mode of politics at the fore of its governance model. Regional parties gleefully aped the Congress, for that made them to reap the windfalls by tapping into pilferage and seepage. Many ministers in Mayawati government were booked for National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scams by the CBI. The MGNREGA is a much bigger pilferage funded by tax-payers. 

"We are about 1,000 families here and none get jobs under MGNREGA, nor any elderly get pension," said Sarvar Khan in Konchhi village near Etawa in UP.

Muslims in Konchhi village in Mainpuri (UP)

The Modi campaign surrounding development easily swept through length and breadth of the country, as people grew tired of "welfarist" politics of the Congress and regional parties. And, so, Mamata Banerjee seems losing her nerves in West Bengal, while Navin Patnaik was pushed to the wall in Odisha. Mulayam is fighting for survival, while Mayawati seems clueless to the march of Modi bandwagon in her backyard. 

Even though Nitish Kumar did some amount of development works in Bihar during his first term, complacency took over him in the second term. And that set in an anti-incumbency wave in Bihar to the extent that it's a puzzle to find out which Lok Sabha seat in the state has his party, JD (U), in real contention. 

After the JD (U) had parted ways with BJP last year, Sharad Yadav beamed with confidence that regional parties would win half of the 545 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. In the winter of his political career, Yadav seems pushed to third position in his Madhepura Lok Sabha seat. 

And, writing on the wall is that regional parties are no more in a position to stop the Modi juggernaut. 

Narendra Modi bike rally in Etah (UP)

While the Congress went into the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign in a defeatist manner, larger story is the wilting of regional parties. And that augurs well for Indian democracy, as the country appears set to leave behind the political legacy of the last two decades, that of the caste and linguistic identities weakening the march of the India story. 

Chasing Indira mirage

Political icons outlast their lives. They are more powerful even long after they are dead. 

John F Kennedy is still powerful in memories of Americans. That Bill Clinton during his first bid in the US Presidential elections got quite a leg up, after Americans found that he looked like Kennedy is being talked about far from Washington and in the unlikely land of mother of all democracy, that India is, should not come as surprise. Because what Kennedy was for America, Indira Gandhi was for India.

And the last hope of Congress and of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and also of numerous other dynasties in India seem pinned in Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Even before the noise in Congress for Priyanka becomes louder, her fans are growing in numbers among leaders of regional parties.  

That BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has emerged as the numero-uno threat to dynasty is being admitted in the political corridor and with quite considerable concern. Modi seems to have taken BJP to such places where the party never existed and that makes him a foe of regional forces as well. 

Arguably, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has lost his political plot. And as if Indian politics is still that gripping soap-opera, his sister and occasional campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is showing quite an eagerness to jump into politics. 

It will be a mistake not to see a pattern, because there is a clear orchestration to prop up her into the political arena.

"Rahul kuch jyaada hi make-up kar liya tha...bilkul babua lag raha tha...16 ke baad ham khul kar bolenge ki Priyanka ko leading role lena chahiye (Rahul looks a kid...after 16th May, we will openly demand a larger role for Priyanka," said a top ranking Samajwadi Party leader, who liasen with top Congress leaders.

Regional parties have thrived with the weakening of the Congress during the last three decades. They built dynastic political parties on caste identities and survived even after they faced corruption charges. 

But the lurking decimation of Congress in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections is being seen as a clear threat to various dynasties. They apprehend that if Nehru-Gandhi dynasty can be politically made irrelevant, they will face the similar fate in coming months or years. And, hence, it makes a strong case for rallying behind Priyanka.

"India is full of emotional people. Priyanka styles on Indira's lines. People can flock to her if she jumps into active politics," confided a seasoned politician. 

From Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab to Haryana to Uttar Pradesh to Odisha to Jharkhand, Indian democracy tells the sorry tale of electoral politics being hijacked by dynasties. While Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru pushed his daughter Indira Gandhi into politics without a clear motive to establish a dynasty, she later did make it happen in 1980s. 

And since then the beneficiaries of the JP movement formed dynasties of their own. So, Mulayam Singh Yadav clan in Uttar Pradesh, Lalu Prasad in Bihar, Devi Lal in Haryana, Shibu Soren in Jharkhand established their hegemony in their respective states. 

But the rise of Narendra Modi has sent shock waves in these dynasties. "After decimating the Gandhi dynasty, Modi will next target dynastic politics in states. He poses serious threats to all those who have carved out political dynasties on caste identities. 

Therefore, all such leaders will make a beeline to demand a larger role for Priyanka after the verdict for the Lok Sabha elections is out," confided a senior Samajwadi Party leader.Arguably, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra could be an easy target for Modi to further crush the Congress. 

"Will she not being a Mrs Vadra prove counterproductive for the Congress?" To this, the reply comes: "This is a land where the likes of A Raja wins with record margin. So, being Mrs Vadra does not matter much. People are emotional and if Priyanka can reinvent herself as Indira, there could be a recovery," said one advocating a larger role for her.

Incidentally, a weak Congress gains a lot of friends. And in the coming months the Congress may be pleasantly surprised to find a lot of new friends. They may also like to do business together. And that will happen because when faced with an existential crisis, lesser foes do not mind joining hands together. 

Thus, Navin Patnaik can have an understanding with Congress, as BJP beings to make deep inroad in Orissa. Mamata Banerjee may also revive her relations with Congress, as ground reports suggest BJP likely to fetch a minimum 15 per cent vote share in West Bengal in the Lok Sabha elections. Also, Mulayam will have no choice but to seek help from the Congress to keep the rising BJP in UP at bay.  

But the Congress will not be in a hurry to launch Priyanka into active politics so soon. That Rahul will get another five years to re-build the Congress is acknowledged in the party. And, therefore, the Congress will like to titillate the people with Priyanka's name for a while. 

You don't run all your best horses in the same race.