A day after Maratha strongman and NCP chief Sharad Pawar questioned the ‘weak’ leadership of the UPA, similar voices of dissent surfaced in the Congress as the party grappled to come to terms with the humiliating defeat in the four Assembly polls. The unrest is so widespread and deep that JC Diwakar Reddy, a senior Congress leader from Andhra Pradesh and a former Minister, has called for the resignation of party president Sonia Gandhi. Moreover, veteran party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has predicted the defeat of the Congress in the lok Sabha election.
Not to be left behind, several MPs from Seemandhra region defied the threat of disciplinary action and pressed for their no-confidence motion notice. Giving vent to their frustration, Congress MP l Rajagopal said the UPA Government had let down the people and should be forced to sit in Opposition.
Party sources said that problems within the party has also put a question mark on the probability of tabling of the Telangana Bill in the Winter Session. A broad range of regional outfits have backed the demand for ‘United Andhra’ and the Congress will have to squarely depend on the BJP to back it for the passage of the Bill.
With dissent out in open, outgoing Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit, who suffered a dismal failure against debutant Arvind Kejriwal, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot have blamed the party and Centre’s policies for their defeats in the just concluded Assembly elections. When Mani Shankar Aiyar was asked whether party president Sonia Gandhi should take the responsibility for the defeat, he said Gandhi has called for introspection. “What do you expect her to do. Wear sack clothes and ashes in Parliament,” he asked.
“I would say it is good to lose. We can await an opportunity to do this revamping or refitting, reinvention of the party to suit the new requirements. When I say reinvent itself, you are asking me ‘will Chidambaram (Finance Minister) replace Manmohan Singh’. That’s a petty question. I am talking about the revamping of party which Rajiv Gandhi promised in 1985,” Aiyar said while talking to reporters outside Parliament. Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar later dismissed Aiyar’s statement as his personal view.
But Aiyar’s most stinging observation came in his talk with a news agency. “Who can be even half-way realistic and expect the Congress to return to powerIJ” Aiyar told Reuters. As the party is facing turbulence from Congress MPs from Seemandhra region, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that the party was likely to crack the whip on MPs for moving a no-confidence motion.
Congress MP from Vijayawada constituency l Rajagopal and Kairmnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar have claimed they have spoken to all other parties, and they are opposing the no-confidence motion against their own Government in a bid to thwart the tabling of Telangana Bill in the Parliament. late in the evening, a frustrated party which since morning offered unconditional support to Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP for formation of Government in Delhi, turned to a different tune.
While AICC general secretary in-charge for Delhi, Shakeel Ahmed said senior leaders of Delhi were of the opinion that the party should give unconditional support to AAP, Babbar said “Begaani Shaadi Me Abdullah Diwana”. Reflecting the confusion within the party, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda advocated for extending “unconditional support” to Kejriwal and created a flutter by remarking “if the decision had to be taken by him and if the matter was left to him, he would take the decision”.
The senior leaders of PCC and general secretaries in-charge of the States where the polls were held called on the party president on Monday to express their position and offer their resignations in the wake of poor show. They also alleged sabotage and named people who worked against the interests of the party, especially in Chhattisgarh and Delhi. Chhattisgarh PCC chief Charan Das Mahant and Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit said that some leaders lost due to “internal sabotage”.
The “weakening” of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi’s statement about learning lessons from Aam Aadmi Party has given voice to votary of lokpal Bill within the party. This section believes that only by conceding this demand Congress could hope to reach out to that section of civil society and common man who is outraged over growing corruption in high places.
Not surprisingly, Minister of State V Narayansamy said the Government was serious about passing the lokpal Bill in the current session of Parliament. At the same time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on social activist Anna Hazare just as he began his fast and assured him of making headway with the lokpal Bill.