Sonia8217;s order smudges lines

SILVASSA, May 18: The Congress is facing a piquant situation after dissolving its committees in Daman, Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, where...

SILVASSA, May 18: The Congress is facing a piquant situation after dissolving its committees in Daman, Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, where it received a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls following a mass switching of Congress loyalties to an Independent candidate in Daman and a BJP candidate in Silvassa.

An All-India Congress Committee member here told Express Newsline on condition of anonymity that the 8220;anti-party8221; activities and the consequent humiliating defeat of the Congress were the reasons why party president Sonia Gandhi had ordered the dissolution and reconstitution of the panels.

Interestingly enough, the order has smudged the battle lines in both the UTs, considered Congress strongholds till the BJP won them in the recent polls. Deserters are now claiming they never left the Congress, while the loyalists are determined to prevent their re-entry at any cost.

Daman and Diu Pradesh Congress general secretary and district panchayat president Dahyabhai Patel was one of the first to resign from the Congress, apprehending a BJP wave. Denied a BJP ticket, he contested as an Independent, publicly supported by then Congress president Anil Aggarwal, vice-president Aslam Khan, treasurer Farid Qureshi, joint secretary Sanjiv Tiwari and Daman municipal council president Mario Lopes.

Lopes, however, now says that though he campaigned for Patel 8212; and against Daman and Diu Congress candidate Jivan Prabhakar 8212; he never resigned from the Congress. Prabhakar, who holds the deserters responsible for his narrow-margin loss, is as adamant that Lopes and his kind will have nothing to do with the new committees.

Says Prabhakar, 8220;Lopes has no right to describe himself as a Congressman. The party central leadership is aware that Lopes and his friends did not campaign for the Congress candidate.8221;

However, Lopes dismisses the charges, saying, 8220;If Gandhi could invite back all Congressmen who left the party, why should anyone oppose our group in Daman? After all, we are the founders of the Congress here.8221;

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Patel, who floated the Daman and Diu Vikas Party when the BJP rejected his request, is also singing the revive Congress8217; tune. He claims to have promised Congressmen to return to the party if elected. Despite all the steps to revitalise the Congress, it seems to have a difficult road ahead, with BJP MP Mohan Delkar 8212; who, as Dadra and Nagar Haveli Congress president led the switchover to the BJP 8212; zealously guarding his territory.