The exit of Akhilesh Das Gupta from the Congress might not cause severe damage to the party in Uttar Pradesh, but it has brought to fore the constant infighting in the party's UP unit.
Congress high command at 10, Janpath either fails to realize the growing unrest among the state Congressmen or it seems to have chosen to ignore this problem that is plaguing the party for quite some time now.
While Akhilesh Das has joined the Bahujan Samaj Party after his removal as a minister in Manhoman Singh's cabinet, the roots of Das's exit from Congress can be traced back to the change of guard in the UP Congress, following the party's dismal performance in the May 2007 Assembly Elections.
Son of a former Chief Minister of UP, Babu Banarsi Das Gupta and Das - a flourishing businessman - always remained an eyesore for the Congress leaders in UP. Using money power, Das always tried to please 10, Janpath and cared little about party's state unit.
If the schedule of Sonia Gandhi's UP tours was briefed to the press by the media wing of the Congress, Akhilesh Das felt it was his personal duty to call up local journalists and invite them for coverage of Sonia's and Rahul's programmes. If luxurious air-conditioned buses were lined up for the journalists and lunch packets promptly distributed among the karyakartas, it always had an Akhilesh Das stamp on it.
His sea of volunteers promptly put up thousands of banners, posters, and large cut-outs of Sonia, Rahul or Priyinka Gandhi - right from Amausi airport in Lucknow to Sonia Gandhi's constituency Rae Bareilli. His supporters clever enough to make sure that Akhilesh Das figured everywhere in these cut-outs.
If loudspeakers shouted slogans of Sonia Gandhi Zindabad, his bunch of vocal supporters made sure that they also raised slogans: "Sonia Gandhi zindabad, Akhilesh Das zindabad" or "Rahul Gandhi zindabad, Akhilesh Bhaiya zindabad".
Even as the so-called 'loyal' Congressmen of UP sulked, Das managed to take all credit for Madam's grand swagat.
A portly-built, bespectacled man, possibly in his late forties, Das showed his fellow Congressmen, how in the 110-year-old Congress party, a ministerial berth can be had by sheer chamchagiri of the Gandhi parivar.
Before UP elections, Das was promptly made State Minister for Steel in the Manmohan Singh ministry, more for his chamchagiri than his election acumen. (Das never managed to win a single election in his life. He once fought assembly elections from Bulandsahar, a stronghold of his late father and managed to get only 2,200 votes).
But if Akhilesh Das's chamchagiri won him a ministerial berth at the Centre, his enemies in the UP Congress were on the rise. After the party's dismal performance in the Assembly Elections, power equations had begun to change. Though Rahul Gandhi with all his road shows failed to revive the sinking Congress in UP, the party's 'yuvraj' and young General Secretary began taking a direct interest in UP's affairs.
Salman Khursheed was removed as UPCC president and replaced by Rita Bahuguna Joshi, a former Mayor of Allahabad. It was from here the tide began to turn against Akhilesh Das.
Bahuguna, herself the daughter of a former chief minister of UP, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, began targetting Akhilesh Das and succeeded in persuading 10, Janpath that Das was not trustworthy. The rug was finally pulled from beneath Das's feet after he was dropped from Manhoman Singh's ministry in May this year.
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But months before he was dropped, Akhilesh Das had already realized that in the new 'Rahul Regime' his days in the Congress party were numbered.
It was Navneet Seghal a senior IAS official who is understood to have brokered a deal between Mayawati and Akhilesh Das.
During his deputation to the Centre, this UP cadre IAS official was secretary to Akhilesh Das in the steel ministry. When Mayawati became the Chief Minister she recalled Seghal to Lucknow and appointed him as Secretary in the Chief Minister's Office.
Since then, this IAS official, who is very close to BSP Supremo Mayawati, made her realize the importance of Akhilesh Das. It is no big surprise why Das was appointed the party's National General Secretary (almost at par with Mayawati's trusted Brahmin face, Satish Chandra Mishra) and also offered BSP's ticket for the prestigious Lucknow Lok Sabha seat.
In Lucknow Secretariat rumours are already rife about the huge 'donation' Akhilesh Das offered to Mayawati for this entry into the BSP.
If Rahul Gandhi is trying to unsettle Mayawati by constantly wooing her Dalit voters, there are talks in Lucknow that Mayawati is trying a split in the UP Congress. It is no coincidence that Das - who literary picked up Rahul Gandhi's slippers during his days in Congress - chose to target none other but the party's own 'yuvraj'.
It is not clear how many Congress leaders - some names are Sanjay Singh from Amethi and Rajesh Mishra, Congress MP from Varanasi - will choose to ride the BSP blue elephant in the near future, but Akhilesh Das has several qualities that has already made him Mayawati's new poster boy.
Firstly, with Mayawati's most trusted lieutenant Satish Chandra Mishra busy handling her innumerable court cases - which include the Taj Corridor case and all those relating to Mayawati's disproportionate assets case - she needs another strong leader, more importantly a good fund manager. Das, it seems, has already filled in this vacuum.
Secondly, though Mayawati has a Satish Mishra to represent the Brahmins and a Muslim face in Nasimmudin Siddique, what she was lacking till now was a leader who could be projected as a Bania face. In Akhilesh Das Gupta, she has found a perfect match and Mayawati lost no time in appointing Das as in-charge of the Vaishya Bhaichara committee.
Lastly, Mayawati would now get what Sonia and Rahul Gandhi used to get - her huge cut-outs, banners and posters of Bahenji, free stay for party leaders in Das's posh hotel in Lucknow or free buses for rallies - and a lot of tamasha.
In return, Das will make sure that Mayawati overlooks his shady land deals and illegal constructions. After all, it is a marriage of convenience, an art called chamchagiri in which Akhilesh Das has turned out to be a grandmaster.
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