NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 29: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's claim to be the undisputed leader of the party will be challenged in the coming party polls.Ending several weeks of speculation, the party's chief dissident, Jitendra Prasada, threw his hat into the ring today, amid group clashes and slogan-shouting at the AICC headquarters. This will be the first time that the claim of the Nehru-Gandhi family to the leadership of the Congress has been contested in a party poll.Accompanied by several slogan-shouting followers, Prasada arrived at the party headquarters at 24-Akbar Road a little after noon to personally hand over his nomination papers to the party's election chief Ram Niwas Mirdha. Prominent among those who proposed his nomination and accompanied him to the party headquarters were party MPs from UP, Noor Bano, S.S. Bundela and Ghufran Zahidi, along with a few MLAs from the state.By deciding to personally file his nomination papers, Prasada was apparently trying to underscore his assertion that the party belonged to the workers and that he was one of them. Sonia yesterday filed her nominations from 10 Janpath.A heavy police cordon was already in place to prevent any ugly scenes between Sonia supporters and those owing allegiance to Prasada. As tempers among rival supporters ran high, the confrontation took the shape of a vociferous slogan-shouting contest, exchange of expletives and some unseemly scuffles.Speaking to reporters soon after filing his nomination, Prasada said that his decision to contest was aimed at continuing the fight of party colleague Rajesh Pilot, with whom he had held several ``revive-the-Congress'' rallies before his untimely death.The high command tried to put on a brave face today - party spokesman Ajit Jogi said that the Congress was a democratic party and anybody was free to contest for any post. However, Sonia would have much preferred to make it unopposed at a time when the party's fortunes have dwindled and her authority questioned.Sources close to Prasada said that his decision to put up a fight was apparently taken this morning after hectic last-minute efforts by senior party leaders Kamal Nath, Ahmed Patel and Digvijay Singh to talk him out of it failed.Prasada confounded Sonia's emissaries by saying that he did not want to barter a deal with the high command for the withdrawal of his candidature. Instead, he wanted a firm assurance that the issues of inner-party democracy, autonomy to various party organs and free and fair elections to be addressed by the party chief. In other words, he was demanding that Sonia change her style of functioning.He had also been waiting for word from 10 Janpath since he wrote a letter to her highlighting the problems facing the party. But Sonia decided not to reply or talk to the dissident leader.Party sources say that while Prasada will find it highly difficult to unseat Sonia in the party polls, his decision to fight her will be more than just symoblic.For one, Prasada is likely to become a rallying point for dissident partymen unhappy with Sonia and emerge as an alternate power centre within the party even if he loses. Over the next ten days, he has planned to embark on a whistle-stop tour of all states, canvassing for support among partymen on the basis of the issues he has raised including the decline
