NEW DELHI, JAN 29: When Priyanka Gandhi decided to partition the large hall at 10 Janpath into four small cubicles, she actually laid the foundations of the Congress President's Office (CPO). Three of these cubicles have been marked out, it's the fourth that's become a hothouse of 10 Janpath politics.Two of the rooms contain the photocopying department and the appointments section, the third is unofficially known as the ``speechwriters' room'' and is shared by Manishanker Aiyar and Janardhan Dwivedi. For the fourth, there are five contendersand no one occupies it full-time.Initially, this room was allocated to Ahmed Patel when he handled Sonia Gandhi's tours during the last Lok Sabha elections. Congressmen still refer to this as Patel's room although it was not he but Ambika Soni who was eventually appointed party general secretary in charge of the CPO.However, both Soni and Patel now prefer to operate out of their 24 Akbar Road offices rather than the room at 10 Janpath.Oscar Fernandes, as partygeneral secretary in charge of administration, and Magaret Alva who handles Public Grievances and the Congress President's bi-weekly Jan Darshan, visit this room only on a need-to-use basis. As does Ram Pradhan, who co-ordinates the various AICC committees.Hovering over all of them is Sonia's influential private secretary V George who has his own room right next to where Sonia meets her visitors. In fact, one reason why the fourth room at 10 Janpath remains without a nameplate is that no one wants to take on George on his own turf.A party official says that except for Patel and Alva, all the others have a ``good rapport'' with George. Alva is said to be miffed with George for helping one of his proteges, Ambika Soni, get the job she was shortlisted for. As for Patel, he's considered to be close to Captain Satish Sharma who has had a long-running ``proxy war'' with George over loyalty to Sonia.Some Congressmen claim that the allegations of corruption raised by Abhishek Verma against George wereinstigated by Sharma. But last month when asked to comment on Verma's allegations, the Captain claimed: ``I don't know anything about it.''Sharma's friends, however, take great solace in the fact that during the last elections, besides Amethi and Bellary, the only other constituency Priyanka campaigned in was Rae Barelli. ``I find no tension,'' says Ambika Soni when asked about the two camps. ``Call me naive, but I have not heard anything about this,'' she says.Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that while Soni and various party officials cite Patel's name as an integral part of the CPO, he has been heard commenting that he's merely the treasurer and has no role in the CPO. Regardless, Sonia continues to mark notes as `Ahmed/Ambika' and both divide their duties accordingly.And while Ambika was away in Shillong for two days recently, Patel offered to look after 10 Janpath in her absence. The workload varies from organising agitations to coordinating with party Congress officials. For example,Pranab Mukherjee's note to Sonia Gandhi offering suggestions for the Assembly elections was marked to the two of them. This was later leaked to the press. Party workers are also quick to note that it was Ambika, and not George, who accompanied Sonia on her visits to Amritsar and Orissa recently.And once Pulok Chatterjee's appointment as the OSD to the leader of Opposition becomes official, he is expected to handle Sonia's parliamentary chores. ``I don't think his (George) role is being curtailed,'' says Ambika. Adding, ``but people will see anything they want into it.''
