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Assembly Elections : Congress sticks to “aam admi”

	January 22, 2007

Faced with the challenge of securing the people’s support in the Assembly elections to be held in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur next month, and Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat later in the year, the Congress has decided to continue with its commitment to the aam admi (common man) in its manifesto. The party’s manifesto committee at its meeting in New Delhi on Jan. 16 saw no choice, but to address major grievances of the electorate in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur, all of them ruled by the Congress. The party recognised that it will have to tackle the anti-incumbency factor in these three states.



For Uttar Pradesh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have reportedly told the party’s Lok Sabha MPs in the state to make all out efforts to ensure the victory of at least four party candidates from their parliamentary constituencies in the Assembly elections. The calculation is that if the nine Lok Sabha members of the party from Uttar Pradesh meet the target, it will mean that the party will have at least 36 MLAs in the new Assembly, an improvement on the last elections. However, observers say that things always do not work out in the electoral arena on such factors.





“BJP wears Mahatma Gandhi mask to hide its communal character”



Congress president Sonia Gandhi launched the party’s election campaign for the Gujarat Assembly elections on Jan. 20, criticising the BJP for wearing what she called the mask of Mahatma Gandhi to hide its “real, ugly and unpatriotic face.”



Addressing a big rally at Devgadh-Baria in the tribal dominated Dahod district in central Gujarat, she said it is the biggest insult to the father of the nation that the most communal party took the Mahatma’s name to project itself as a nationalist and patriotic party.



Without naming Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi strongly criticised the State Government for not implementing the United Progressive Alliance Government-sponsored people’s welfare schemes and touting the projects as the State’s own.



Enumerating the welfare schemes launched by the Centre after the Congress-led UPA Government came to power, she said the BJP since it came to power in Gujarat in 1995 refused to implement the Act to give forest land holding rights to tribal dwellers.



Sonia Gandhi expressed concern at the rise in prices of essential commodities but blamed the State Government for it.



Making a reference to the 2002 communal riots in the State, she criticised the Government for the ‘deteriorating’ law and order situation claiming that offences against women were on the rise. The BJP, she said, had no love for the poor and the party could not be trusted to take welfare measures for the weaker sections.



Refuting the Modi Government’s criticism of the UPA Government as being step-motherly to Gujarat, the Congress president said the Centre had never discriminated against any State on political grounds. Gujarat like all other States had been given a fair share of the Central assistance due to it but the State Government, not implementing the projects, was depriving the people of the benefits.



Earlier, Union Textiles Minister Shankarsinh Waghela ridiculed Modi for demanding that the Centre “exempt” the interest component of the loans given for the Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam project. A former Chief Minister, Waghela, said Modi apparently did not even know how the funds were mobilised for the dam project. He said there was no question of the Centre exempting the interest on loans because the Rs. 4,000 crore it provided for the project was given as outright grants and not as loan.



He said if Modi had any concern for the welfare of the tribals, he could have made better use of the huge funds he was “wasting every year on personal propaganda in the name of vibrant Gujarat summits.”





Punjab DGP replaced



In a major setback for the Amrinder Singh Government in Punjab, the Election Commission last week directed the state government to remove S.S. Virk as Director General Police. It has order the appointment of R.S. Gill as DGP from a panel of three names sent to it by the state. The Commission expressed dissatisfaction with the Government’s response to a complaint by the Akali Dal seeking Virk’s removal following allegations of concessions given to a family business venture of his brother. Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh complied with the EC order, but claimed that no undue concession had been provided to the company owned by Virk’s brother, which proposed to set up a convention centre and a multiplex on 14 acres of land owned by the family.



A senior Election Commission Official said, “Preliminary inquiry suggested that the brother of the DGP had bagged a contract from the Punjab Government recently. Though the contract does not relate to the DGP directly, it is considered better to keep the DGP away from poll duties.”



Besides Akali Dal complaints, the Commission received a large number of complaints against the incumbent DGP, which accused Virk of allegedly operating as a “Congress agent.”



The main pointed allegation against Virk was from Akali Dal MP, Sukhbir Singh Badal, who alleged that Virk and his brother had recently got a Rs. 1.5 billion mega project for a convention centre, hotel and resort from the Amrinder Singh Government. He further alleged that Virk had been “rewarded” with the mega project in lieu of his “helping hand” for the Congress party in the Assembly polls.





Congress banks on old guard



The Congress list of candidates for the Punjab Assembly elections shows that the party is depending upon its existing legislators, most of them having been renominated. All Ministers including Chief Minister Amrinder Singh have found place in the Congress list for the 117-member Punjab Assembly. Observers say that this may go against the party’s strategy to beat the anti-incumbency phenomenon.



In the national capital territory of Delhi, the Congress had something to cheer about when the Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi) led by Paramjit Singh Sarna retained control of the Delhi Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (DGPC) in the elections held last week. The SAD led by Prakash Singh Badal had organised several rallies in the capital to wrest control of the DGPC. SAD (Delhi) won 27 seats in the 46 member body which oversees the functioning of Gurudwaras, schools and colleges in the capital. The Badal group of the Akali Dal won 12 seats, two lower than the last time.