Sonia’s pep talk to Congmen seeks to corner stability plank

Sonia was addressing top Congress leaders including CWC members, PCC presidents, Chief Ministers, CLP leaders and ex-MPs, together forming the party’s electoral backbone, after two days of meeting them individually. And she chose the occasion to try and put life into the party’s sputtering poll efforts.

There were strong words for the BJP and its friends, a pungent description of the Samajwadi Party, barely one line on the campaign that she was a foreigner and a countdown of the Vajpayee government’s fall. But the crucial issue was stability, Sonia told her senior colleagues.

“The country is crying for stability. How can the BJP assure stability merely by seeking to replace the ADMK with another Dravidan party with whom they share nothing in common. Let the country stand warned. If, God forbid, the BJP brings another hydra-headed coalition to power, it will wobble and fall like the previous one did. The country will be forced into the fourth election in four years before 2000 A.D. is out,” Sonia said.

Sonia seemed to be aiming for three birds with one stone: equating Congress with stability, packaging the polls as Congress versus the rest as against BJP versus the others. And, third, to present the Congress as the pivot, allies are welcome but not on par. This is a crucial indicator of 10, Janpath’s thinking on alliances which the party is working out.

Earlier, senior CWC member Sharad Pawar was guarded at a press conference, stressing the BJP’s role in “ruining things”. Sonia took this many steps ahead.

Sonia felt the BJP had started a “pathetically low-level campaign” against her and continues to use its “two tongues”. Its government fell because it couldn’t “manufacture a majority” while the Congress minority government didn’t happen because it refused to “succumb to political blackmail”.

Mulayam Singh too wasn’t spared. “It is entirely appropriate that the Samajwadi Party has found its destiny in the arms of communal forces. The clandestine contacts between the Samajwadi Party and the BJP have ruthlessly revealed the nexus between them. These nefarious links must be rejected through the ballot box by defeating both the BJP and its secret partner,” Sonia said.

At least N. Dennis, the TMC MP, seems to believe this as he rejoins the Congress. He is the ninth “migratory bird” which has flown the Congress way since the ADMK withdrew support to the Vajpayee government. It’s now 9-1 for the Congress on this score and party cadres are hoping this will grow after Sonia’s hard-hitting speech today.