Mamata to stay as rebel, more Cong men leave party

Mamata, who had agreed to make up with the faction led by West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Somen Mitra following Sonia Gandhi’s intervention, today sprang a surprise when she told reporters in Calcutta that there had been no change in her stand that the "Trinamul Congress" was the "real" party. She also said that she would come out with "details" tomorrow.

"Have I ever gone back on my stand on the BJP. How can I describe Atal Behari Vajpayee as untouchable when he took oath as Prime Minister and represented India in the United Nations. The BJP is a recognised political party and secures enough votes," she said. She, however, pointed out that BJP was not a factor in State politics, but still an anti-CPI(M) platform should be built up "since our agitation against CPI(M) will never end and we will not leave an inch to the Marxists".

In Tamil Nadu, Vazhapadi Ramamurthy who had been running a "parallel" Congress unit of his own for some time now, effected a split in the party to float the Tamil Nadu Makkal (People) Congress. The new outfit would ally with J Jayalalitha’s AIADMK in the coming Lok Sabha and all future elections.

And in Bihar, the efforts of the Congress to consolidate its position suffered a reverse with at least 15 senior partymen led by State general secretary Sanjeev Prasad Tony walking over to the Samata Party. Tony, a Dalit leader, in fact was considered to be a close aide of Congress President Sitaram Kesri. His desertion from the party came as a big surprise even to the top brass.

There was more bad news for the Congress, this time from Maharashtra. The party’s moves for ensuring a one-to-one contest between the ruling BJP-Sena alliance and the Opposition received a jolt following the United Front’s decision to contest up to 22 seats in the State.

The decision was taken at a meeting here last night of the Front constituents in the State, including Janata Dal, CPI, CPI(M), Samajwadi Party and a faction of the Republican Party of India, which otherwise is not part of the UF. The meeting passed a resolution stating that it would have no truck with the Congress. But the Front would contest only those seats where its constituents had a sizable following.

In Gujarat, serious differences between the ruling Rashtriya Janata Party and the Congress surfaced today within two days of their central leaders agreeing in principle in New Delhi to share 26 Lok Sabha seats.

GPCC Chief C D Patel and CLP leader Amarsinh Chaudhary said the 10 seats which the Congress had won in the 1996 Lok Sabha election were "non-negotiable" in the seat-sharing talks with the RJP starting tomorrow.

Reacting to the Congress leaders’ statement, RJP chief Madhusudan Mistry said that the Congress had won these seats by a very low margin. "Like in Baroda, they won only by 17 votes," he remarked. "Our attitude for a seat-sharing agreement is positive and we are open to negotiation and ready to reduce the demand by one or two seats," he added. However, there was some cheer for the Congress in Karnataka where there were indications of a tie-up with Ramakrishna Hegde’s Lok Shakti.

Kesri’s beard logic

The much-awaited kick-off of the Congress poll campaign in Andhra Pradesh was a rather lacklustre affair though the party managed to mobilise a respectable crowd at the PWD grounds in Vijayawada on Sunday.

Apart from a screeching challenge to the Telugu Desam government in the state to dissolve the Legislative Assembly and seek a fresh mandate, the long-drawn speech of Congress president Sitaram Kesri lacked fire.

Kesri even went to the level of personal criticism and said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu had a beard, Inder Kumar Gujral too was bearded and they were joined by "another beard" Harkishen Singh Surjeet. "These three beards brought the nation to ruin," he declared.