Taking lessons from the assembly election results in five states the top leaders of Congress, NCP, BJP, Shiv Sena, MNS and RPI have urged their cadre to get back to grassroots and combat corruption. However, the big question before the ruling and the opposition parties is how to enhance the image of their leaders.
In a clarion call, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said, “Get ready to throw out the corrupt Congress-NCP government. The people should teach them a lesson as seen in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.”
NCP chief Sharad Pawar has already sent out a message to the cabinet ministers to focus on good governance. At the June 10 rally in Mumbai the NCP is going to blow the bugle of “parivartan”. However, there is simmering discontent within NCP because of the controversy and the corruption charges that are being leveled against the Pawars. A senior general secretary said, “In Tamil Nadu, DMK was defeated because of the 2G spectrum scam. The tainted image wiped out the good administrative decisions taken by the government in the last five years. To provide rice and wheat at cheap prices to poor and providing television or laptops went down the drains because of corruption and the family’s absolute control in state.”
What also has the NCP worried is the Congress’s clever decision to appoint chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. A senior Congress functionary said, “In many ways Chavan has come as a boon. Though he does not have a mass base like Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee or the leadership of Tamil Nadu’s J Jayalalitha, we hope to encash his clean image to consolidate the Congress base across western Maharashtra and Marathwada.”
BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said, “We have decided to sustain our campaign against corruption till 2014.”
MNS plans to stick to its sons of the soil plank to occupy regional space. “The failure of mainstream parties like the Congress and BJP could help in strengthening the regional forces who understand the aspirations of the sons of the soil,” believes Raj Thackeray.
