Sonia fails to excite ex-Congmen

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Jubiliations in the Congress camp notwithstanding, Sonia Gandhi's decision to campaign for the party is unlikely to influ...

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Jubiliations in the Congress camp notwithstanding, Sonia Gandhi’s decision to campaign for the party is unlikely to influence the host of disgruntled leaders who have switched sides in recent days.These include leaders like Aslam Sher Khan and Jagannath Mishra from the Narasimha Rao camp. Both have scoffed at today’s development and do not see how a Sonia led campaign would make any difference to the party’s dwindling fortunes.On the other hand are sworn Sonia loyalists like Mamata Bannerjee and Mani Shankar Aiyar who have also parted ways with the party. A window may still be open for them to retrace their steps, but for the record Mani Shankar Aiyar termed her decision “half-cocked”.

Contacted in Calcutta, where he had been to participate in the launching of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress campaign, he said, “I am deeply disappointed that Sonia is campaigning for a party which has drifted so far away from the party of Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. Notwithstanding her campaign, I will not come anywhere near the Kesri Congress until there is a total change of leadership. Her half-cocked decision to campaign is not one which will change my views.“She has said that she will campaign but not take over the party leadership. So long as the leadership is in the hands of Sitaram Kesri and his coterie, it is not the Congress worth campaigning for.

I hope Sonia will not come to West Bengal to campaign because then Trinamul Congress will have to respond to her when there is no quarrel between us.”Meanwhile, Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress is meeting tonight to formulate a formal reaction to Sonia’s move. While Aiyar and Banerjee may find their way back to the Congress, it may be too late for another Sonia loyalist, P R Kumaramanglam, who recently joined the BJP. He said he “fails to see” how today’s development could effect his prospects. “In any case, I am no longer in the Congress. I can’t say if Sonia factor could change the prevailing political equation,” he said.

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He clarified that he “did not leave the Congress because of the existing leadership. I left after watching for over four years the disintigration of the party. I saw how it moved from the age-old principle of service to the people to the service to the self.” Whether the Sonia factor can win over some of the leaders who have left the party, or stop the ongoing desertions, is yet to be seen, but the CWC member Arjun Singh sees a glimmer of hope.

“All these things (the reversal of and end to desertions) could be one of the effects of Sonia campaigning for us. Beyond this, I would not hazard a guess,” he said.For Jagannath Mishra, Sonia’s arrival is “too late”. Mishra has an interesing question for Sonia: will she also campaign for Laloo Prasad Yadav’s RJD with whom the Congress has forged an alliance in Bihar?