Today in politics: Day 2 of Rahul’s happy Wayanad visit, but is contractor anger now turning on Cong in Karnataka?

Rahul’s defence of I.N.D.I.A against PM Modi’s jibes in his speech during the no-confidence motion – as reported by Liz Mathew – will reverberate in faraway Jharkhand. With the alliance partners having already decided on a joint candidate for the September 5 Dumri bypoll, the NDA will be meeting Sunday to decide who will take on I.N.D.I.A’s Bebi Devi.

Bebi Devi is the wife of former JMM education minister Jagarnath Mahto, whose death necessitated the bypoll. Last month, Bebi Devi was inducted as a minister by the Hemant Soren government.

On Saturday, I.N.D.I.A held its first meeting on the bypoll at CM Soren’s residence. “The alliance has decided to hold a joint campaign for the by-election,” said senior Congress leader Alamgir Alam.

On Friday, the BJP and All Jharkhand Students’ Union resolved to contest the bypoll jointly under the NDA banner.

In Chhattisgarh, where Assembly polls are due at the end of the year, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge will drop in for what is being seen as a launch of the party’s campaign for the elections. Kharge will be attending an event of the state Congress government, ‘Bharose Ka Sammelan’, in Janjgir city, with Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel present.

While the Congress had scored a landslide win in the state in the 2018 Assembly elections, getting 68 of the 90 seats, it had bagged only two of the six constituencies in Janjgir-Champa district, the same as the BJP and BSP.

PM Modi’s attacks on the Mamata Banerjee government in a virtual address to the BJP’s Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad in West Bengal on Saturday having fanned the flames, BJP president J P Nadda is set to have a fiery Sunday.

Addressing party workers Saturday, as reported by Santanu Chowdhury, Nadda was not far behind in his attack on the Trinamool Congress over the recent violence-hit panchayat elections in Bengal, comparing the same to Partition. He also mocked the TMC over the arrest of its leaders in corruption cases by Central agencies, saying Cabinet meetings of the Mamata government could soon be held in jail.

“The violence and killings we witnessed during the panchayat polls are unprecedented… We witnessed post-poll violence after the 2021 Assembly polls too, but the violence during the rural polls resembled the bloody days of Partition here,” Nadda said, adding that Mamata Banerjee had no right to pretend to be “the champion of democracy”.

Nadda also addressed the BJP’s winning rural poll candidates and alleged victims of violence. He promised them that the party would win more than 35 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in next year’s elections.

The TMC called Nadda’s remarks a bid to “divert attention from the BJP government’s failures in Manipur”.

On Sunday, Nadda is scheduled to offer prayers at the Dakshineshwar Temple, continue with the panchayat parishad event, and address workers.

Haryana might be a year away from election season, but poll-related activity has been gathering pace in the state recently hit by communal tension. Sunday will be a busy day, with Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda addressing a farmers’ protest in Sirsa district, from where he will head for workers’ meetings at several places. The son of Congress veteran Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is virtually running the shots in the party in the state,

Deepender has been finding his feet, touring Assembly constituencies in the state.

Continuing with their parallel course, separate from the Hoodas, Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala, Kiran Choudhry and Kumari Selja will hold a ‘Jan Aakrosh Rally’ in Kaithal Sunday, against the state BJP government.

Bitterly opposed to Bhupinder Hooda, and alleging that the powerful leader had sidelined them in the state unit, the three have been holding separate events and have not been seen at PCC programmes recently, as reported by Varinder Bhatia. All eyes, Varinder says, are on the CLP meeting being held by Hooda on August 16. Will the three apart from other Hooda detractors turn up, is a question on many a Congress lip.

Fresh off his Parliament performance where he set the course for the government reply on the Manipur issue during the no-confidence debate and then laid three Bills overhauling the criminal system, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in Harami Nala, a creek area that separates India and Pakistan in Gujarat’s Kutch district, on Sunday.

On Saturday, the first day of his visit to the state, Shah was in Koteshwar to lay the foundation stone for a BSF mooring place and for the e-inauguration of other projects.

During his address, he hailed the BSF’s role in guarding the country’s frontiers and promised budgetary allocations to give them better facilities. The country is able to sleep peacefully at night because BSF jawans remain alert 365 days, 24 hours to secure the country’s borders, Shah said, adding that the Narendra Modi government has tried to offer its gratitude with steps for the security of BSF personnel’s family members.

Earlier in the day, Shah laid the foundation stone for a fertiliser plant at Kandla, where he said PM Modi had shown the path of natural farming to the world.

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In the weekly State Watch column, Johnson T A writes about civil contractors in Bengaluru emerging again at the epicentre of politics in Karnataka. It could be a fallout of the 40% commission allegation levelled against the BJP by the Congress in the run-up to the May 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, says Johnson – certainly not a turn of events the Congress will like.

(With PTI inputs)