Congress tries to get its Gujarat act together

Apart from party-ruled states, the IYC has also been instructed to be at the forefront in organising relief materiel. IYC chief R.S. Surjewala will be camping in ravaged areas from Tuesday to personally supervise relief operations. An AICC team led by Ahmed Patel is already in Gujarat to monitor relief work while Sonia may undertake another visit later this month.

In the ongoing contest among political parties to provide relief to earthquake victims in Gujarat, the Congress, despite taking an early lead over its rivals, appears to have got bogged down in intra-party squabbles in its state unit. Infighting between factions led by PCC chief C.D. Patel and senior leader Madhavsinh Solanki respectively, admit party sources here, has come in the way of streamlining relief work. With most relief work being routed through the PCC chief, the Solanki faction is feeling left out.

The Congress, it must be said, was the first to sense the gravity of the quake, with Sonia visiting the affected areas just a day after they were ravaged, beating Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee by a couple of days.

But despite the urgency shown by Sonia to mobilise her party, the state unit’s response has been painfully slow. For the party, which did fairly well in last year’s Panchayat polls, this was the right time to consolidate its position but its presence is hardly noticed in the quake-affected areas.

This has given the Sangh Parivar, especially the RSS and VHP a distinct advantage, especially since the BJP is in power both in the state as well as at the Centre.

For both the BJP and the Congress, the politics of quake relief is crucial — for the former to retrieve its image which has come in for some drubbing in the past three years of its rule and for the latter to capitalise on the general disenchantment with the ruling party.

While Assembly elections are due in the state only in 2003, both parties realise how crucial it is to be at the forefront of providing succour to the affected people.