Friendship Day may not be the one most celebrated by politicians in India. With stakes high and power driving most dynamics in the country, not many friendships last here. With exceptions of a few, most politicians part ways with once-so-close mates. This Friendship Day, we take a look at five political friendships across the country that did not stand the test of time:
Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia
On March 10 – Scindia’s father Madhavrao Scindia’s birth anniversary – Jyotiraditya posted a letter on Twitter, dated a day earlier and addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The letter announced his resignation from the Congress.
Earlier this year, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had said that had turncoat Jyotiraditya Scindia worked hard in the party, he would have become the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, but after switching to BJP, he occupied the “last seat”.
Before the famous exit, Jyotiraditya Scindia always counted heavily on Rahul. They had known each other from the age of four, went to Doon School and St Stephen’s College together. They were even ‘bench-mates’ in the Lok Sabha.
Devendra Fadnavis and Uddhav Thackeray
Trouble started brewing between the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and his main ally, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in May 2017. The two had always been cordial towards each other despite the trouble between their parties. The Sena rarely targeted Fadnavis personally, even when it pulled no punches to take on the BJP and its top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah. For his part, Fadnavis was always mindful of Thackeray’s sensibilities, even when his party men were not.
Mayawati and Mulayam Yadav
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati in 2019 withdrew an over-two-decade-old case against Samajwadi Party (SP)’s Mulayam Singh Yadav in the infamous guest house fracas of 1995 that soured the relations between the two parties and turned them rivals in Uttar Pradesh’s political stage. All of this only because they briefly joined hands for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The duo even shared a stage after two decades.
However, soon after losing the elections, Mayawati took several potshots at the party and both decided to go solo at the Gram Panchayat elections this year.
Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Roy
West Bengal’s hottest political jodi, which crafted the end of Left Front rule in 2011, systematically decimating it in subsequent elections, broke up in 2017.
Until 2015, Mamata’s vote of confidence in Mukul was intrinsic to the functioning of the Trinamool Congress. In March 2012, much against the reservations of then prime minister Manmohan Singh, Mamata had got party man Dinesh Trivedi removed as railway minister over a controversial fare hike announced in the Union budget and got Mukul to replace him.
However, last month, BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy, along with his son and former MLA Subhrangshu, returned to the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Navjot Singh Sidhu and Capt Amarinder Singh
The tiff between Sidhu and Singh turned uglier ever since the Amritsar (East) MLA attacked the CM over the Guru Granth Sahib desecration cases.
Singh was against Sidhu’s elevation as Congress’ Punjab unit chief. The chief minister had denied meeting Sidhu until he publicly apologised for the derogatory remarks on social media against him.
The cricketer-turned-politician was appointed as the new president of the party’s Punjab unit by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. However, Singh did attend Sidhu’s appointment ceremony and posed for photographs together.
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