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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, SEPT 26: The Congress’ organisational polls have come as a great opportunity for the party’s long list of stalwarts to do what what they are best at — settling scores with each other and edging out rivals from the scene. And everybody who is anybody in the party — be it Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, Jitendra Prasada, Kamal Nath, N.D. Tiwari, Digvijay Singh — is working overtime not only to ensure his own place but also upp the ante on his rivals.
At the core of this silent power struggle is the belief that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will reconstitute her team soon after she is elected to the party’s top post and in the process many old faces may give way to new ones. The key posts which will be up for grabs are those of some general secretaries and secretaries in the AICC, apart from berths in the CWC.
The Congress chief’s election is scheduled for November 1, if there is a contest for the post. Otherwise, Sonia will — in all likelihood — be declared party president on October 24, the last day for filing of nominations to the post.
For senior leaders, it’s a time for “patch-ups and tactical alliances” to ensure they stay in the race and also be one up on common rivals. It’s all about who commands a sizeable chunk of the PCC and AICC delegates, who in turn, elect the PCCs and part of the CWC respectively. Apart from lobbying for each other, alliances mean mutual transfer of votes at the time of voting for the working committee and edging out others in the race.
In a move obviously aimed to outmanoeuvre his rivals — which include Scindia, Kamal Nath, Digvijay and Prasada — senior leader Arjun Singh today made official his decision not to contest for the CWC. Arjun’s ostensible plea that the younger leaders should be given a chance has put other ageing leaders like Natwar Singh, V. Bhaskar Reddy and K. Karunakaran in a quandary.
Arjun had recently patched up with N.D. Tiwari to put “their” man Sri Prakash Jaiswal in place of Salman Khurshid as PCC chief in Lucknow after Tiwari’s bid to make it to the post failed.
Arjun is apparently hoping to be nominated to the CWC by Sonia and even if that doesn’t come his way, he is next in line for the Leader of Oposition’s post in the Rajya Sabha, which may fall vacant after Manmohan Singh’s term comes to an end in June next year.
Senior CWC member Jitendra Prasada, viewed in party circles as a probable contender for the party president’s post, is busy arranging strategic tie-ups with like-minded leaders, what with his rivals Arjun Singh and Tiwari gunning for him in his home turf of Uttar Pradesh.
Prasada has been in touch with veteran party leaders K. Karunakaran, V.C. Shukla and Pranab Mukherjee, among others, for planning a joint offensive to counter common rivals Arjun, Tiwari and Scindia. He also met Kamal Nath last week in what could be a limited tie-up to counter the “growing influence” of Scindia, their common rival.
Scindia and Kamal Nath, though arch-rivals at the Centre, have a common foe in Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, especially after the latter has quietly put his men in place to conduct the party polls in the state.There is also talk that the two stalwarts are working together to counter Digvijay in his state where he is fast emerging as the undisputed leader.
