Ahmed Patel won the battle but Amit Shah is winning the war

Patel secured the win after two votes against him were declared invalid by the Election Commission of India.

After the day long drama, that finished well past midnight, Congress's master strategist, Ahmed Patel, was finally able to secure his fifth consecutive term in the Rajya Sabha. The election that garnered more attention than any other similar event, at least in recent memory, saw Patel and Congress save face and showcase it as a victory over Bharatiya Janata Party and its President Amit Shah.

Yet it would be a folly on the part of the grand old party of India to treat the win as an outcome of outmanoeuvring the ruling party and its chief since it was only Election Commission of India's decision to declare two votes against Patel invalid that helped secure it.

It will be an even bigger mistake as the BJP was able to break away the Congress's legislators and ensure cross voting, and only naivety by two legislators in terms of the electoral procedure was able to see Patel through. Forgetting that it was luck and not a master strategy that helped Patel might also take away the party's attention from how it is in disarray in not only Gujarat but also at the national level.

A dangerous proposition, given that by going after Patel, the man who taught Sonia Gandhi the workings of politics in the country while being her political secretary, the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah, has clearly shown that it is hell bent on finishing off the Congress by attacking it at the very top level of its leadership.

Modi and Shah are going for the Congress's jugular

In the attempt to defeat Patel, given his standing in the party, the BJP's leadership broke the unwritten agreement between top political parties that when in power and out, they do not go after the top rung leadership of the other, while the lower rung leaders might be left to protect themselves.

By going after Patel, not through the use of investigative agencies but trying to hurt him where it really matters for a politician, elections, BJP has made sure that the country realises that the often repeated call for a 'Congress Mukt Bharat' made by the Prime Minister is not to be treated just as a catchy phrase, but is to be considered a serious intention of the saffron party.

This intention can be seen turning into action given the timing of the attack on Patel, as it has come when his party, and its leader Sonia Gandhi, are fighting to stay relevant in the country's political arena.

The struggles which started following the drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, that Congress went into after ten years in power and yet won only 44 seats, have shown no sign of ending. And the BJP is showing no signs of relenting.

Since then the BJP has grown from strength to strength, as it is now in power in 18 states, 13 of them on its own, while the Congress has lost out in state elections one after the other. Including not being able to form the government in states like Goa and Manipur where it came first but was outsmarted by the Shah's party.

A Congress house in disarray

Though a much-needed win for the Congress, it has the potential to distract the party from essential house cleaning that it needs to undertake in a battle to keep occupying a meaningful space in the political arena, at a time when it is being dealt one blow after the other, both, electorally and politically.

The latest being the break away of legislators of the party before the Gujarat Rajya Sabha election and cross voting during it, that can be seen as Shah's handiwork, does not bode well for Congress's chances for the upcoming polls in the state.

From 57, the party has gone down to 51 legislators after the six of them resigned following senior leader Shankersinh Vaghela's exit after he rebelled against the leadership. And the fact that not all of the remaining voted for the Patel just adds substance to the belief of the Congress is a deeply divided party.

Seen in the backdrop of the cross voting within the joint grouping of the opposition which the Congress is trying to head, in the recently held elections for the post of the President and the Vice- President of the country, these facts just make the troubles of the party even more blatant.

Squeezed between the elections for the two posts, was another blow of the breaking of the Grand alliance in Bihar when Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) broke away from the coalition, with Congress and Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal, to form the government in the state with the BJP.

Another loss for Congress has been the addition of 10 JD (U) Rajya Sabha members into the BJP-led NDA's fold. This along with the reality of senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu to be the Chairman of the upper house of Parliament, have made the Congress and the opposition weaker in the one place where they have been able to give the government a strong fight.

Patel won the battle but Shah is winning the war

There is little doubt that the current reality of political standings of both BJP and Congress have come under Shah and Patel, who are both considered the main political strategist in their parties. And it is equally true of the latest fight between the two.

Though it might feel like just a fight between the government and the opposition or one political entity against another, the reality is that the events of the election also had a personal element between Shah and Patel. This comes from the time when the nature and quantum of power that both now have, were totally opposite.

While Patel was one of the most powerful people in the country during the UPA regime, Shah was sent to jail in the Sohrabuddin encounter case when he was the home minister of Gujarat and still just a state leader. It won't be too far off the mark to think that Shah might feel that the push in the case from the various investigative agencies might have had a hand of the then all mighty Patel.

And though Patel and the Congress might have been able to fend off the latest attack and come out victorious, believing that they have suddenly been able to reverse the trend of coming out second best in almost all political battles since 2014, might end up doing the opposition more harm than good.

OneIndia News