Congress rebels plan to strike after elections

Sources in the Congress say Sonia’s leadership is likely to come under renewed threat from her detractors who are bracing themselves for the move in case the party fares badly in Orissa, Haryana, Bihar and Manipur in the elections.

The dissidents, mainly party leaders opposed to Sonia and her loyalists, have held secret meetings in the last few weeks and are reportedly preparing a `blueprint” for the post-poll scenario. Their activities got a fillip with the exit of CWC member Meira Kumar and former Union minister Kamaluddin Ahmed, and with the poll results drawing near, “everybody is meeting everybody” in the party to discuss and align themselves according to the fast-changing equations.

Among the leaders around whom dissident activity is believed to be centred are CWC members Rajesh Pilot, Jitendra Prasada, R K Dhawan and Vijay Bhaskar Reddy. There are others like Pranab Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh, who, according to party insiders, are also not very happy with the way the party is being run. A former Gandhi family loyalist M L Fotedar is said to have joined the bandwagon, miffed at being denied the Rajya Sabha nomination.

Party sources say former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao has also returned to the centre of party activity, with several senior leaders, including CWC members Natwar Singh and Manmohan Singh, calling upon him in the last week. Natwar Singh has apparently been requisitioned by Sonia to gauge the mood of senior party leaders and CWC members. He had also met Jitendra Prasada and Pranab Mukherjee in this context last week. Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, who was expelled from the party last year for raising the foreigner issue, is also said to be in touch with several party leaders opposed to Sonia.

According to a CWC member unhappy with the present situation, any changes or moves in the post-poll scenario will focus on the party and a “Sharad Pawar-like situation” which resulted in the exit of senior leaders will not arise. The general mood among the disgruntled leaders is to stay in the party rather than leave it and try and bring about changes from within.Sonia loyalists have apparently tried to counter this spurt of dissidence by announcing the schedule of party’s organisational elections, including that of the president in June. Their hope is that with the dissidents themselves a divided lot, no acceptable leader can emerge as a challenge to Sonia even if the party is washed away in the Assembly elections.

Sonia’s leadership has come under question ever since the party fared badly in last year’s Lok Sabha elections.