Accordingly the supreme court will take the first step in bringing about a measure of clarity when it adjudicates a petition filed by the congress, congress PARTY' target='_blank' title='nationalist congress party-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>nationalist congress party (NCP) and shiv sena and sets the deadline for a floor test and the order will be pronounced around 10.30 am on Monday. Furthermore it is quite possible that it will set an early date, as it earlier did in karnataka, and leave the bharatiya janata party (BJP) little room to manoeuvre, given that as things stand the Devendra Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar axis does not seem to have the numbers to pull things through.
Reportedly before I get to the primary theme of this piece, I would like to see the funny side of a situation in which we have a chief minister and deputy chief minister without an assembly to preside over. Like Pirandello’s six characters in search of an author and it is precisely at this juncture that the congress has chosen to throw in its lot with a party that is every bit as communal and majoritarian as the BJP. Also let us always remember that the Sena’s exclusionary politics combines two binaries the Hindu-Muslim binary and historically the Marathi-non-Marathi binary.
Moreover it is easy to see that the congress as it is now is not a fit vehicle for challenging the BJP. Instead of trying to engage the party on its own communal ground, it would be far better for the congress to sit in Opposition wherever necessary and seriously begin the work of organizational regeneration without which it will find survival itself a difficult business.
