As Rahul, Sonia attend swearing-in, Congress CMs give ceremony a miss

NEW DELHI: The chief ministers belonging to Congress gave a miss to the swearing-in of Modi 2.0, indicating that the political antagonism with the two national parties runs deep which cannot be covered up by the presence of Congress top brass at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Congress-ruling Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Puducherry stayed away even as Congress supported Karnataka chief minister of JD(S), H D Kumaraswamy, graced the mega event.
The absence could easily be traced to a sort of directive from the Congress leadership to steer clear of Modi’s coronation. Else, the Congress rank and file takes a cue from its leadership, with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi accompanied by former PM Manmohan Singh and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad making sure they attend the oath ceremony.
Of all the Congress chief ministers, Amarinder Singh and Ashok Gehlot are known to be strict Congressmen who easily balance their central compulsions by keeping cordial relations with arch rivals like Narendra Modi.
The other CMs to stay away were Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik, Andhra’s Jaganmohan Reddy and Telangana’s K Chandrashekar Rao.
To keen observers, the sight of a divided BJP-led Centre and opposition-led states presented a telling political picture.
Under Modi, the BJP has adopted an expansionist political agenda, finding foothold and even power in states that have traditionally stayed out of the saffron reach. The BJP wins in Haryana and Tripura, and the 2019 fabulous performance in West Bengal and to some extent, in Telangana, have further reinforced the fears among regional parties.
In that context, Congress is also concerned about its future in the states. While BJP has been trying hard to bring down the government in Karnataka for an year now by enticing ruling combine’s MLAs to resign, Modi’s landslide appears to have encouraged the party to try a similar tack in MP.