Priyanka’s Wayanad tour leaves Congress leaders uncomfortable | Powertrip #120

Welcome to this week’s Powertrip, a political newsletter exclusively curated for TNM and NL subscribers by Dhanya Rajendran, Pooja Prasanna, and Shabbir Ahmed. In this edition, we tell you how during her recent Wayanad tour, Priyanka Gandhi deliberately kept her schedule away from most local leaders, leaving them unsettled. In Karnataka, the state government has formed a special investigation team under ADGP (CID) BK Singh to probe allegations of attempted voter deletions in Anand constituency. The BJP’s move to replace its popular face in Tamil Nadu, K Annamalai, in order to secure an alliance with the AIADMK seems to have backfired, resulting in a deep internal rift..Inside TrackExclusive stories, for your eyes only.Priyanka Gandhi’s Wayanad tour leaves Congress leaders uncomfortablePriyanka Gandhi’s 10-day tour of Wayanad has left local Congress leaders unsettled. Traditionally, a visit from the Gandhis, both Rahul and Priyanka, meant packed rallies, crowded receptions, and a chance for district leaders to flaunt their grassroots clout. This time, they got none of it.We learnt that Priyanka deliberately chose to travel without the usual fanfare. She insisted on no welcome rallies, no party escorts, and no detailed briefings. Her schedule was kept away from most local leaders, and she spent little time at the party office. Instead, she slipped into villages with the help of social workers and professionals, speaking directly with constituents about their lives and expectations from her as MP.For party leaders, this was deeply uncomfortable. With Priyanka bypassing them, they lost control over the conversations and visibility that normally come with such high-profile visits. For many, the visit was supposed to be a chance to assert their own strength in the district — but Priyanka’s approach denied them that opportunity.The discomfort showed when Kalpetta MLA T Siddique, hoping to accompany her, was firmly told to stay back in the Assembly in Thiruvananthapuram. By cutting out the cadre and stripping away the spectacle, Priyanka’s hope was to build her own direct connection with Wayanad’s people. But in doing so, she left her local party leaders feeling excluded..Karnataka CID to probe Aland and more The Karnataka government has formed a special investigation team under ADGP (CID) BK Singh to probe allegations of attempted voter deletions in Aland constituency. The SIT – which has completed major investigations such as the Gauri Lankesh assassination, the Prajwal Revanna rape case, and the POCSO case against BS Yediyurappa – has formed a team to look at allegations of ‘vote chori’, as Rahul Gandhi calls it.The SIT held its first meeting on September 22, and will look at summoning Election Commission officials if needed. The SIT will not only go into the question of how 6,000 fraudulent form 7s were filed to delete legitimate voters, but also look at who collected the data of 6,000 voters. It will probe any other similar incident in Karnataka..All is not well within the Tamil Nadu BJPUnion Home Minister Amit Shah made it clear that Tamil Nadu is a key state for the party’s southern push. However, efforts by the BJP high command to strengthen the party’s position in the state are running into one roadblock after another.To begin with, the party agreed to replace its popular face in Tamil Nadu, K Annamalai, in order to secure an alliance with the AIADMK. The calculation in Delhi was that this move would help consolidate the AIADMK and BJP cadres ahead of the polls. But instead, the move has caused a deep internal rift in the state BJP. According to party insiders, relations between the present state BJP president Nainar Nagendran and Annamalai are anything but smooth.Despite repeated instructions from the central leadership not to interfere in alliance-related negotiations and to leave those discussions to the high command, Annamalai held a surprise meeting on September 21 with AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran, who had only recently quit the NDA. This move caught Nainar Nagendran’s camp off guard and left them red-faced.BJP sources told TNM that Nainar was not informed about the meeting, nor did Annamalai seek his approval. When Nainar learnt that Annamalai was reaching out to Dhinakaran to convince him to rejoin the NDA, he was reportedly upset and escalated the matter to the high command, filing a complaint against Annamalai for acting independently.BJP insiders also point out that the recent exits of former AIADMK leader OPS as well as Dhinakaran from the NDA were not coincidental. Both leaders, they claim, were in close touch with Annamalai and had accused Nainar of failing to properly engage with alliance partners. Nainar’s supporters, on the other hand, allege that Annamalai himself played a role in the departure of OPS and Dhinakaran from the NDA fold.Not only that, there is a caste angle to this tussle within the NDA. Nainar, who hails from the dominant Mukuluthoor community, is being seen as a challenger to OPS and Dhinakaran, who also belong to the same community. This is also one of the reasons that OPS and Dhinakaran have directly accused Nainar of not doing enough to keep the allies happy.As things stand, it appears to be only a matter of time before the growing differences between Nainar Nagendran and Annamalai spill into the open..Zero HourA political story of public importance.How the ‘smart cities’ plan has used public funds to hasten the privatisation of citizens’ data.Digital infrastructure is used to collect information that is being accessed by businesses, without clear data laws and policies..PowermovesTop 5 political storiesKarnataka’s socio-economic survey is heading down a familiar, troubled roadWhen the right-wing can’t stomach an opinion, even a literary icon like Leelavathy is fair gameAfter Trichy chaos, TVK releases 10 rules to regulate party ralliesTelugu diaspora raises questions over Trump’s new H-1B visa decreeAndhra HC ropes in CID to look into TTD donations theft case from 2023

Priyanka’s Wayanad tour leaves Congress leaders uncomfortable | Powertrip #120

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