BHOPAL, DECEMBER 13: After half-hearted attempts to mollify the rebel Congressmen led by his former deputy, Subhash Yadav, Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has decided to get tough with them. And he apparently doesn't mind even if this amounts to taking on party heavyweights like Arjun Singh, Kamal Nath and Ajit Jogi who have the ear of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.Singh gave an unmistakable indication of his toughening stand in Delhi last weekend when he said he had no plans to expand his cabinet. Earlier, he had unilaterally announced Yadav's induction during his next cabinet expansion.The change of tack follows Singh's intense lobbying with Congress leaders in Delhi last week after AICC general secretary Pranab Mukherjee's efforts to broker peace between him and Yadav failed.Digvijay held detailed discussions with most CWC members and complained that some senior leaders from Madhya Pradesh were supporting the dissidence in the state Congress, party sources said.Singh decided to adopt anuncompromising posture when he found CWC members like Rajesh Pilot and Jitendra Prasada sharing his perception. They, too, felt that Sonia was allowing herself to be guided by a coterie of leaders who had lost touch with the ground realities, the sources added.These friends will stall any attempts to make the Congress high command intervene in Madhya Pradesh Congress affairs, Digvijay supporters feel. The anti-Digvijay camp, on the other hand, is banking on intervention from Delhi to make Digvijay see reason. ``What happened in Orissa is a clear pointer,'' a Digvijay-baiter said.``In Madhya Pradesh it is not the MLAs but the party high command which has been deciding the leadership question,'' he said. The drubbing the Congress received in the recent Lok Sabha elections has already diminished Singh's clout with Sonia, the dissidents say. Another drubbing in the local bodies elections may prove to be the last straw. Yadav, meanwhile, is unrelenting. In a letter to the Chief Minister, he has somewhatmelodramatically observed: ``You lead a cruel government. I am leading the fight of the poor farmers against it.''Ideological posturings apart, this signifies that the offensive against Singh within the Congress will continue. And though Yadav appears Digvijay's principal detractor upfront, he is sure of support from some leaders in the Congress high command. The rebel leader had publicly claimed support of Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia and Kamal Nath when he led a farmers' agitation against the Digvijay government at Khalghat last month. And though the MP Congress Committee had recommended disciplining Yadav and Singh had despatched MPCC president Radhakrishan Malaviya to Delhi to press Congress President Sonia Gandhi for action, nothing happened.Instead of acting against Yadav, Sonia asked Digvijay to address the farmers' issues raised by him. She also asked Malaviya to induct Yadav into the State Election Committee (SEC) as a special invitee during the distribution of party tickets for the ongoinglocal bodies elections. This did not end the hostilities. Accusing Singh of ignoring their supporters during selection of the party nominees for the civic elections, Arjun Singh and Kamal Nath withdrew their representatives from the SEC. Yadav also quit its meetings, alleging that Digvijay was running the state Congress like a personal fiefdom.In fact, the process of selecting party nominees for the civic elections saw Singh being increasingly isolated. Even the Shukla brothers and other leaders like Suresh Pachauri and Gufran-e-Azam had to fight the CM to get tickets for their supporters.Yadav's jibe that `` the question of cabinet expansion is a matter between you and the Congress high command which should not be made a public issue'' is significant. It amounts to telling Digvijay that as a Congress CM, his authority in Madhya Pradesh is not absolute but subject to the overriding control of the party high command.
