UP | Massive show of strength by Farmers but Yogi & BJP ahead in poll surveys | Barkha Dutt
 Sep 8, 2021

The Kisaan show of strength in Uttar Pradesh's Muzzafarnagar this Sunday has put in question the impact of farmer protests on the upcoming UP Polls. However, numbers from the ABP-CVoter opinion poll have shown that BJP may win between 259-279 seats in the assembly elections in UP, and may have a clean sweep in the states of Uttarakhand, Manipur, and Goa too.

https://www.indiatoday.in/mood-of-the-nation-survey-august-2021 

 Support for Modi as 'Best Choice for PM' Falls from 66% to 24% in a Year, India Today Poll 16/AUG/2021  Finds https://thewire.in/government/narendra-modi-prime-minister-adityanath-india-today-poll
The triggering factors for this were inflation and the Union government's handling of the COVID-19 second wave. 

The magazine’s cover indicates that inflation and unemployment are top concerns of an Indian at this point. Within only a span of six months – from 17% in January 2021 – the number of people who think that the economy will “get worse” has grown to 32%.

Midweek Matters 28 || Parakala Prabhakar​ https://youtube.com/embed/0RJ2EwIheR8?start=80&end=472 
In this Episode Dr Parakala looks at the contrasting findings of surveys conducted by india Today (Mood of The Nation) and Morning Consult, and shows how they could help us understand BJP's present reluctance to engagement in Bengal, especially with regard to Bhabanipur by-election.   

Morning consult say PM approval 70per cent.. Not really reliable as sample size to small and restricted to literate and interviewed on line.  Link to the portal of Morning Consult: https://morningconsult.com/

Punjab Congress battle isn’t about Navjot Sidhu or Amarinder Singh. It’s about Gandhis https://youtu.be/SsKnB93z0PI?t=74 Jul 21, 2021  The Gandhi siblings have now decided to go for the kill — re-establish unquestioned supremacy. Our Political Editor D.K. Singh explains in #Politcally Correct.

https://theprint.in/opinion/politically-correct/punjab-congress-battle-isnt-about-navjot-sidhu-or-amarinder-singh-its-about-gandhis/698980/ 

The Gandhi siblings are prepared for a showdown now, knowing well that the organisational set-up – which enabled them to have their point persons on key positions — and Congresspersons’ belief in TINA (there is no alternative) factor makes their ouster next to impossible. Even if a section of Congress leaders find the party’s first family an electoral liability, the latter remains well-ensconced.

Secure in this knowledge, the Gandhi siblings have now decided to go for the kill — re-establish unquestioned supremacy. The detractors or naysayers must fall in line or leave. An Amarinder Singh in Punjab, an Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, a Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana, an Oommen Chandy in Kerala, a Siddaramaiah in Karnataka, a Ghulam Nabi Azad in Jammu and Kashmir, a Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh, or a Kapil Sibal in Delhi can’t decide what’s good or bad for the party. The Gandhis are the Congress and its fate must remain tied to them. If someone doesn’t agree, the message for them is unequivocal: My way or highway.

Why Rahul-Priyanka move in Punjab marks change of direction for Congress  Shekhar Gupta underscores 3 stories; the BJP-fication of the Congress and Congressisation of the BJP. https://youtube.com/embed/mT7-v5BosHg?start=12&end=665 

BJP-isation of Congress..

Punjab Congress battle isn’t about Navjot Sidhu or Amarinder Singh. It’s about Gandhis D.K. Singh 20 July, 2021  https://theprint.in/opinion/politically-correct/punjab-congress-battle-isnt-about-navjot-sidhu-or-amarinder-singh-its-about-gandhis/698980/ 
The Gandhi siblings have now decided to go for the kill — re-establish unquestioned supremacy. The detractors must fall in line or leave.

It’s about the Gandhis and their idea of creative destruction to revive the party, no matter how unthinking or brazen it may look to those outside the family.

The Gandhi siblings seem to have taken a call that they must break from the politics pursued by their mother, Sonia Gandhi, since 1998 — dealing with naysayers through dialogue, persuasion and reconciliation.

The Gandhi siblings are prepared for a showdown now, knowing well that the organisational set-up – which enabled them to have their point persons on key positions — and Congresspersons’ belief in TINA (there is no alternative) factor makes their ouster next to impossible. Even if a section of Congress leaders find the party’s first family an electoral liability, the latter remains well-ensconced.

See who all they have been appointing state Congress chiefs. Rahul Gandhi may be breathing fire against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) ideology, but he is fine handing over the party’s reins in Telangana to Revanth Reddy, a former activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the RSS, who joined the Congress in 2017. The new Punjab Congress president, Navjot Sidhu, left the BJP after 13 years in 2017 to try to realise his chief ministerial ambitions either in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or in the Congress. AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal couldn’t have someone else become the CM of a full-fledged state. So, Sidhu joined the Congress. Nana Patole left the BJP to join the Congress in 2018; he was appointed Maharashtra Congress chief three years later. Congress veterans mustn’t, therefore, be in any illusion about their ideology and loyalty being a protective shield behind which they can question the Gandhis’ style of running the Congress.