RPI dispute delays Cong’s seat strategy

The dispute is before the Election Commission which is expected to give its decision on whether the party elections were valid or not on January 5, 1998. The Congress itself is awaiting a decisive verdict from the EC with bated breath as it has currently been pushed to the position of talking with all faction leaders who are more often than not at cross purposes with each other.

However, the RPI which is desperate to ensure that at least a couple of their ranks open their account in the Lok Sabha, has also kept a compromise formula ready in case the EC’s decision does not resolve their problem: that they will suspend the party executive until the Lok Sabha elections so that bruised egos will not come in the way of unity at this juncture.

Leaders of both the Ambedkar and Gavai factions are currently in New Delhi trying to resolve the dispute. It is not clear if this formula thrown up from among the grassroots workers will be acceptable to either.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ranjit Deshmukh said, “We hope to have the seat adjustments in place by January 6. Our own seat allocations have, however, been accomplished smoothly, in a very friendly atmosphere.”

According to Deshmukh barring eight seats, the Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) has finalised a list of just one candidate per Lok Sabha constiutency, Baramati (Sharad Pawar) and Raigad (A R Antulay) being among these.

Disputes over the remaining will be finalised after discussions with the All India Congress Committee in New Delhi between January 7 and 10, 1998.

MPCC general secretary Gurunath Kulkarni, patting his party on the back, said, “There was so little bickering this time and such marked co-operation between all sections of the PEC that even our observer S M Krishna expressed his happiness at the smooth proceedings.”

Meanwhile senior Janata Dal leader Mrinal Gore told The Indian Express that the UF meeting this evening hoped to take stock of respective party strengths in the various constituencies to achieve an equally smooth distribution among themselves. She denied that the State JD was in dialogue with Maharashtra Congress leaders but said, “They know which seats we wish to contest and we hope they will leave these free for us as we will do the rest for them.”

However, former Chief Minister Sharad Pawar and the PCC president are said to be in constant touch with all UF constituents including the Samajwadi Party which was part of this evening’s deliberations. The SP is interested in some core seats where it has a relatively strong position and some of the UF contituents’ aspirations are said to be clashing with their arithmetic.

However, a UF leader said these differences are likely to be settled amicably as all parties realise that they would once again draw a blank in the 12th Lok Sabha if they failed to avoid multi-cornered contests as in 1996 which gave 33 out of 48 seats to the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance. While the third parties in Maharashtra are still holding out for 18-20 seats, “more realistic figures are likely to emerge after this meeting,” he added.