11-30-2005, 07:22 PM
T V R Shenoy on Rediff
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Uttar Pradesh is the country's largest state by far; the Congress is irrelevant there. Maharashtra is India's second-largest state; the Congress chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, lives at Sharad Pawar's mercy. West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh each send 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha; the Congress has been out of power in the first since 1977, and has just returned to power in the second after a decade in the wilderness. Tamil Nadu, with its 39 Lok Sabha seats, has not had a Congress chief minister since 1967. The BJP holds Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and a Biju Janata Dal-BJP coalition is into its second term in Orissa. Karnataka has a Congress chief minister, but his plight is even worse than his Maharashtra colleague, thanks to H D Deve Gowda.
And, the Congress is all set to lose Kerala in 2006.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Uttar Pradesh is the country's largest state by far; the Congress is irrelevant there. Maharashtra is India's second-largest state; the Congress chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, lives at Sharad Pawar's mercy. West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh each send 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha; the Congress has been out of power in the first since 1977, and has just returned to power in the second after a decade in the wilderness. Tamil Nadu, with its 39 Lok Sabha seats, has not had a Congress chief minister since 1967. The BJP holds Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and a Biju Janata Dal-BJP coalition is into its second term in Orissa. Karnataka has a Congress chief minister, but his plight is even worse than his Maharashtra colleague, thanks to H D Deve Gowda.
And, the Congress is all set to lose Kerala in 2006.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->