Written by: Rajan Pandey
With the crucial UP assembly elections less than 4 months away and election to 10 Rajya Sabha seats scheduled within a month, the Samajwadi Party supremo and ex UP CM Akhilesh Yadav exploded a bomb. Along with his uncle and senior SP leader Ramgopal Yadav, he nominated Dhanraj Nathwani as party’s second candidate for the Rajya Sabha. Immediately after the news of his candidature, media and political circles across the country are abuzz with a lot of conspiracy theories about the meaning and implications of this decision. But how can the Rajya Sabha candidature by a UP based regional party be so significant?
Who is Dhanraj Nathwani
Dhanraj Nathwani is a senior business executive with roots in Gujarat. He is the son of 4 times Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathwani who won his recent election from Jharkhand as an NDA candidate. Like his father, Nathwani is a senior executive with the Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group with whom he has been working in different capacities for 16 years. Dhanraj Nathwani also succeded Amit Shah as the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association. Because of his father’s association with BJP and his own association with the Reliance group- one of the biggest corporate backers of the Narendra Modi led government, majority found it odd for the SP to have chosen him. Since the day of its formation, the Samajwadi Party has always been a hardcore opponent of the BJP and RSS.
On the question of making this odd choice, Samajwadi Party national spokesperson Manoj Singh Kaka defends it by saying- “its not an odd decision to nominate someone from corporate background to Rajya Sabha. Since the days of Ram Manohar Lohia, our politics is inclusive and we want to bring people from all walks of life to political decision making, be it social service, education or industry.” But how can the son defend opposition politics in Rajya Sabha when his own father is MP in the same house from BJP? Manoj Singh does not find this too as anything unusual by saying-“people from differing ideologies and parties can come from the same family. Look at the oldest political family of India- the Gandhis. Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun are in BJP but Sonia Gandhi and her children are in Congress. If that can happen in Gandhi family, why cant it happen in others.”
Akhilesh Yadav’s Compulsions or a Corporate Realignment
Since the declaration of Nathwani’s candidature for Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party, a number of conspiracy theories are doing rounds in the political and media circles of the country, which can be divided into 2 groups.
One group of people believe that this decision is a result of political compulsions. In today’s politics, money is needed to contest elections and Samajwadi Party is trying to attract contributions from the corporates before the crucial 2027 UP assembly elections. Previously Amar Singh used to act as a bridge between industry and the Samajwadi Party and Sahara group was one of the main funders of the party. With both Amar Singh and Sahara group long gone and 10 years of sitting in opposition, the party is facing a fund cruch. Since Nathwani has ties to the Reliance group, he could act as one such bridge and become the Amar Singh of Akhilesh Yadav.
The second group believes that this decision has a much deeper significance. The constant patronage of Adani group by the current ruling dispension is making other corporates uncomfortable who believe that Adani group is growing at their cost and principals of fair competition are being denied by the system.
Veteran journalist and Lucknow based political analyst Siddharth Kalhans says- “it is no secret that the Adani group is getting help from the ruling dispension and other corporates were okay with it. However, recent controversies around a lot of mergers and acquisitions- where the Adani group tried to expand at the cost of other corporate houses has made them doubtful. They are realising that the group is bypassing the principal of fair competition and its growth is causing other corporates to give up their interests which is unacceptable. As a result, a bigger politico-corporate realignment seems to be taking shape where other corporates are trying to flex political muscle by exploring options in the opposition camp and Nathwani’s candidature seems to be one such experiment.”
Manoj Singh agrees -“Corporates definitely compete with each other and may be majority of them are realising that BJP is only helping one corporate at the expanse of all others.”
Will the step backfire
As the news of Nathwani’s nomination came, BJP attacked the SP by a post on social media which said that SP doesn’t care for its workers and leaders- whom it uses to do menial things while plum posts are sold to rich people. Manoj Singh rejected this criticsim saying- “the BJP is only irked because now corporates and industry lobbies are realising that they are being exploited and thus aligning themselves with Samajwadi Party.”
However, there is yet another theory doing rounds that it is just another master stroke of BJP leader and Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah. By getting a BJP person nominated to Rajya Sabha from the SP, he has created distrust and hopelessness among the grass-root workers of Samajwadi Party, who are now de-moralised and realising that the game of 2027 is already over. On the contrary, some expers are claiming that this developmen is just a logical step in the ongoing, silent battle between Amit Shah and UP CM Adityanath. It is an open secret in Lucknow that BJP high command- especially Shah, is not happy with Yogi and is increasingly interfering in the state’s affairs through some civil servants and deputy CM’s Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak. Some experts speculate that by making SP powerful, Amit Shah is actually trying to corner Yogi into submission.
Lucknow based independent journalist Gaurav Gulmohar believes that the opposition to Nathwani’s candidature by SP cadres and leaders is genuine. He believes that- “over last 10 years, Rahul Gandhi and the India alliance have attacked both the Adani and Ambani group and created an environment of distrust towards their relationship with BJP in the psyche of common voters. Majority poor voters and the opposition supporters now believe that Adani-Ambani are looting country’s resources under BJP’s patronage. To expect them to change this mindset overnight towards one of these two corporates would be impractical and the opposition- especially SP has to travel a long road before it could make this decision digestible for its own voters and cadres.”