I never imagined this soon afterwards that someone would be going up to Jami-Lee Ross and saying “hold my beer”. Who would have thought that turning your back on your own party and sitting in irrelevance on the cross benches once your own caucus doesn’t want you any more was such a career template to follow?
At least Jami-Lee Ross had the awareness to know he had no chance in a by-election and quietly took his salary, throwing the odd grenade at his former team mates when he could.
Gaurav Sharma decided that wasn’t enough attention, he wasn’t done burying his political career, and announced he was resigning from the Labour Party. He insisted the party were going to invoke the Waka jumping legislation and he didn’t want to get thrown overboard so he was leaping into the Waikato unaided to show them.
Labour would not have have wanted to take such action because:
The polls are tight and governments do notoriously badly in by-elections
They have no need of his vote, it makes no difference.
The last thing they want to do is talk about a disgruntled former colleague.
There will be an election in a year, if they wanted a distraction it isn’t this circus.
They were probably glad Gaurav had fallen off the front pages and doing their best to forget he ever existed, as the rest of the country would soon be doing.
But Sharma couldn’t have that, he craved the limelight. This was about him, as most things were. Others might put their heads down, roll their sleeves up, and do the mahi they were elected for, but not Gaurav - he was the victim. Wail at the unfairness of it all. Are you wailing?
This isn't about him wanting to leave either, deals have been done in parliament previously to allow resigning MPs to leave early without a by-election. Clearly Gaurav wants another day in the sun, the waste of taxpayers money on a pointless by-election is not his concern.
Even without a deal he only had to wait a few more months, then there would have been no by-election. His intention is obviously not to go quietly but to put the boot into Labour. That’ll teach them to give him feedback - you don’t give Dr Sharma constructive feedback or you suffer the karma.
There’s no loving in your eyes left today
If I listen to your lies, would you say
I'm a man (a man) with no prescription
I'm a man (a man) who doesn't know
How to sell (to sell) an eviction
I come and go, I come and go
Sharma, karma, Sharma, karma, Sharma chameleon
I come and go, I come and go
Staying would be easy if your voices were like my dreams
they are just mean, they are just mean.
Dr Sharma claims he will start a new centrist party. Remember United started out with good intentions, departures by moderate National and Labour people who thought a centrist party would hold the balance of power in an MMP government.
Sadly for them United rapidly became just Peter Dunne, his absurd bow tie, and his increasingly sad and desperate efforts to retain his presence in parliament reaching out to groups as disparate as the outdoor recreation community, Christian parties, and the purveyors of synthetic cannabis to resuscitate his vote
Gaurav could join one of the fringe parties to give them a boost in publicity. Look how well that went for Jami-lee Ross, his mentor, joining Advance NZ - an action even Peter Dunne might have found too craven.
He could join National. In his resignation post he listed a series of what he deemed to be failed spending by the government - he already sounds like Chris Bishop. Curiously “pointless by-elections” was not an item on his list.
National MPs and supporters seem very excited about Gaurav’s situation. Either they are genuinely concerned at the mental state of the man and the great unfairness he has endured, or they don’t give a shit and this is just an opportunity to have a dig at the government.
It is the second one. To be fair many of us on the left took quite a bit of delight in the unhinged behaviour of Mr Ross attacking National, but many of use were also genuinely concerned at his mental state of mind as details emerged.
Still for a party that has enormous difficulty attracting candidates he could be just the thing to improve the diversity in their caucus. Narcissism isn’t necessarily considered a problem on the other side of the floor. I’m kidding of course, they’ll go with a white businessman.
Should Labour even stand? If Gaurav can muster a few thousand followers and split the vote with Labour then National would almost certainly win - so why stand? Take the moral high ground and stick to this by-election being a waste of tax payers money, head down and getting on with more important things.
They probably will stand but why not leave the others to it, let Dr Sharma take this defeat alone, and give National no opportunity to gloat over beating their candidate? They have little to lose, the media will report it as a great National victory in any case.
Did we hear your wicked words every day
And we used to be so sweet, I hear you say
That our love (my love) was an affliction
When we cling (we cling), our love is wrong
When you go (you go), you're gone forever
Why string along, why string along?
Sharma, karma, Sharma, karma, Sharma chameleon
You’ve got to go, you’ve got to go
Voting would be easy if the choices were like our dreams
They’re, red, and green, just, red, and green
Gaurav Sharma was elected for one reason only. In a landslide win to Labour following their handling of Covid he was elected because he was the Labour candidate, not a local personality, or Doctor, or anything else.
Hamilton West didn’t wake up that Saturday and say to themselves - “hey, let’s elect a narcissist lacking any awareness of others - that’ll be a laugh”, no they ticked the red candidate from Team Jacinda along with millions of other people that day.
Hamilton West is a bellwether electorate, it tends to go with the party elected - in a landslide it was only ever going one way and that had nothing to do with Dr Sharma. The electorate vote in 2020 had a margin of just over six thousand votes but the difference between Labour and National for the party vote was ten thousand.
Sadly the disciplines of being a first term MP have been beyond Gaurav, he was an important Doctor don’t you know - they were lucky to have him there really.
What should Dr Shama do now? Mainly he should just go away and not come back again, maybe do something more useful like doctoring, or sitting up the back and reflecting that maybe, just maybe he isn’t the victim but is actually a quite annoying whining prat.
Sadly his is another name in the list of MPs who in recent years have knocked the confidence the public has in parliament because they are too busy serving themselves rather than the people that elected them.
I think of all the people who down the decades have worked their asses off to get Labour into government, to elect people who will improve the lot of every day Kiwis. Before he changes colour I think Dr Gaurav Sharma owes them an apology.
Wikipaedia says pretty much most of the relevant stuff. seems the doctor can't practice his craft any more. Sharma is registered with the Medical Council of New Zealand under a general scope requiring he practise under supervision in the GPEP training programme. His certificate to practise expired on 31 August 2022.
That first para is a cracker!