Congress faces dismal state of affairs: One year down the line
By Seema Mustafa & Venkatesh Kesari
NEW DELHI: The Congress party, set to celebrate its first anniversary in power, has not improved its prospects in either Uttar Pradesh or Bihar and is facing trouble in important states like Delhi, Karnataka and Kerala, where it is currently in power. The “Sonia Gandhi charisma” has failed to revive the party in the crucial Hindi speaking states with senior party members now watching in stunned silence renewed attempts by the leadership to bring down the fairly popular chief minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, in Delhi.
The Congress is now divided between the few who have access to 10, Janpath and the rest who are watching from the sidelines. The first includes powerful entities like Ms Ambika Soni, Mr Ahmed Patel, Mr Janardhan Dwivedi, Mr Pranab Mukherjee and Mr Shivraj Patil with Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr Natwar Singh, Mr Arjun Singh and Ms Margaret Alva just behind. The second list, of those who have to wait for appointments and are never sure of access, includes chief ministers N.D. Tiwari, Sheila Dixit, Amarinder Singh, Tarun Gogoi, Veer Bhadra Singh and almost all the PCC chiefs with a few exceptions.
The lack of talent is also reflected in the complete violation within the party of the “one man, one post” criteria. Mr Pranab Mukherjee, for instance, is the defence minister, Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha, West Bengal PCC chief, AICC in-charge for Punjab affairs and chairman of the UPA panel on a separate Telangana. Mrs Sonia Gandhi herself is UPA chairperson, National Advisory Council chairperson and Congress president and is seated in Parliament in the front row, next to the Leader of the Lok Sabha.
Efforts to revive the Congress in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have failed dismally. UP Congress chief Salman Khursheed, after a brief stint of touring the districts, is back in New Delhi amidst rumours that Mrs Sonia Gandhi is keen to replace him. The cold war between him and AICC general secretary in charge of UP Satyavrada Chaturvedi has not helped matters with the latter having more access to the coterie and the party president than Mr Khursheed these days.
Samajwadi Party leaders told this newspaper that the threat to their government from the Congress is over as “the leadership there has realized that it cannot win an election without a party organisation of any kind in the state”. Loyalists are keen to install Mr Rahul Gandhi as the general secretary in charge of UP, but are worried that continuing failure would erode his authority in the party.
In Delhi, Union minister Jagdish Tytler and MP Ajay Maken are leading the charge against Ms Dikshit with reported encouragement from Mr Ahmed Patel. Sources here said, “Ours is the only party where we create our own dissidence as we do not want any chief minister to become popular in his or her own right.” The chief minister had to walk out of a Congress meeting because of the vicious attack by her own party leaders against her. She is reported to be extremely upset and has still not got an audience with Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who has adopted the role of a bystander.
In Kerala, the Congress has been unable to “manage” veteran K. Karunakaran, who has been pushed to the brink of floating a new party. Sources said Mr Karunakaran, who has his own support base in the state, was not given an opportunity to meet Mrs Gandhi with the result that he is now in no mood to mend fences. The BJP is growing in Kerala with unofficial estimates placing its current strength at 10 per cent in a state where it was non-existent till just before the present crisis engulfed the Congress. Those close to Mr Karunakaran maintain that “this is a forced crisis and was not at all necessary”. Interestingly, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar met Mr Karunakaran recently and the old war horse, who was close to Indira Gandhi, made it apparent that he could break the party in the state.
In Karnataka, PCC chief Janardhan Poojary is reportedly being encouraged by Delhi to take pot shots at former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, with whose party the Congress is in coalition in the state. Sources said factionalism is rising in the states with no attempt by the leadership to unite members and strengthen the party. There is visible worry about what many in the party, including loyalists, perceive as the fading charisma of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, whose ability to attract votes was “exposed” in the recent Bihar elections. The party is looking at Mr Rahul Gandhi although the consensus is, “He has still a long way to go before he can lead the Congress to power.”
President’s Rule in Bihar has been welcomed by the NDA and others opposed to Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, like the Lok Janshakti Party. Congress leaders from the state are the first to point out that Central Rule has not helped revive their party with the leadership unable to decide on an effective replacement for PCC chief Ram Jatan Sinha. This despite the fact that he was amongst those to have virtually rebelled against the high command and had finally agreed to contest although his campaign targeted Union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. Mrs Sonia Gandhi, after distancing herself from developments in Bihar and Jharkhand, has been focusing more on “success stories” like Jammu and Kashmir, and international relations.—By arrangement with AsianAge/ Delhi.
