Haunted by the Gujarat debacle, a large number of Congress MPs from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh today met party chief Sonia Gandhi to voice their fears over the Assembly elections next year.Their biggest apprehension was regarding the tribal vote. The BJP wrested even this traditional vote bank of the Congress in Gujarat and the Congress fears a similar fate in MP and Chhattisgarh, both of which have a large tribal population. In their meeting with Sonia in Parliament House, the MPs demanded to know if the party had a strategy to take on the BJP.Tomorrow, party MLAs from UP have been called to meet Sonia. There could be fresh deliberations on whether the party should join hands with the Samajwadi Party to topple the Mayawati government.But the situation has changed after Gujarat. Added to this and the other factors at play in MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan is the anti-incumbency aspect; all three are Congress-ruled states and MPs admitted winning was an uphill task. What has further perturbed the Congress is the possibility of the NDA Government calling early polls in these three states.The meeting at Sonia’s residence had almost all top leaders in attendance, including Manmohan Singh, Ambika Soni and Pranab Mukherjee. The party’s spearheads for the Gujarat polls, Kamal Nath and Shankersinh Vaghela, were also present.
