Amit Shah Vs Madhusudan Mistry: Stage is set for a battle between two Gujaratis in UP

LUCKNOW: The stage is set for a battle between two Gujaratis in UP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, after the Congress appointed Rahul Gandhi’s confidant Madhusudan Mistry as the in-charge in the state within days of Narendra Modi’s aide Amit Shah starting his stint for the BJP.

Both Mistry and Shah have a difficult job on their hands in the state, where the ruling SP and the main opposition, Mayawati-led BSP, have relegated the two national parties to the margins over the past decade and a half.

Although neither Gandhi nor Modi has been officially named the prime ministerial candidate by their respective parties, the decision to field Mistry and Shah affirms the proxy battle between the Congress vice president and the Gujarat chief minister as well as the importance the two parties are according to the country’s most populous state.

Mistry, 68, is a member of Congress’ election coordination committee headed by Gandhi and is credited with having steered the party to victory in Karnataka assembly polls just as he did earlier in Kerala.

Mistry, who contested the Sabarkantha Lok Sabha by-elections in 2001 to enter Parliament, lost from the seat in 2009, but that has had little impact on his steady rise in the Congress.

Congress leaders say his organisational abilities and background in non-governmental organisations brought him to Gandhi’s attention even as the party veterans privately lamented the rapid rise of this “outsider” within the organisation.

A follower of Shankersinh Vaghela during his BJP days, Mist ry formally joined Vaghela when he rebelled against the BJP in Gujarat and formed the Rashtriya Janta Party in 1995.

With the RJP losing electoral relevance rapidly, Vaghela merged it with the Congress and paved the way for Mistry’s entry into the Congress.

“One of the reasons for appointing Mistry as the Congress’ incharge in UP could be the fact that he has seen the BJP’s working at close quarters in Gujarat. Therefore, he could be expected to counter Modi-Shah’s electoral tactics in UP,” said Professor Sudhir Panwar of Lucknow University.