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Congress planning AICC session to chalk out political stra¬tegy |
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The Congress is planning a stock-taking exercise in mid-October, ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections and possible early general elections. The All India Congress Committee meet¬ing, likely to take place any time between Dussehra and Diwali, is also expected to provide a platform for newly appointed gener¬al secretary Rahul Gandhi on the centre stage of national polit¬ics. The last AICC session took place in Hyderabad last year when Rahul Gandhi took the floor for the first time, indicating that he was ready to play a bigger role in the party.
Party sources say that the one day AICC session is expected to focus on social, economic and political issues, and the stra¬tegy to be adopted in case of an early Lok Sabha poll.
Observers say, the session becomes significant as it comes at a time when the Congress party’s relations with the Left parties are at best tenuous and the air is thick with speculation about mid-term elections. The differences between the Congress and the Left parties over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal are far from over and though the two sides have set up a special panel to discuss this issue, neither side is likely to budge from its stance.
Admitting that each UPA partner has begun internal assess¬ment about its respective poll prospects, Congress leaders said it has, therefore, become imperative to lay down a roadmap for the future. In particular, the party it will have to do some deep introspection on its experiment in coalition politics and whether it has served the Congress well.
While discussing pre-poll alliances and its future relation¬ship with the Left parties, the Congress leadership will have to be content with a growing view in the party that the Congress should chart an independent path even if it means sitting in the opposition. Several senior Congress leaders firmly believe that coalition politics has actually impeded the party’s growth.
Pointing to the party’s gradual demise in key states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the Congress once enjoyed an pre-eminent position, several senior leaders have suggested that their first priority should be to rebuild the party from scratch by reinventing itself.
As a first step, however, the Congress will focus on devis¬ing its poll strategy for the Assembly elections in Gujarat. In fact, the outcome of this election is expected to have a bearing on subsequent political developments. A good showing by BJP’s Narendra Modi in Gujarat could fuel fears about the BJP-led NDA’s revival at the Centre and thus compel the warring UPA partners to sink their differences.
Samajwadi Party to remain equidistant from Cong, BJP
The Samajwadi Party has shot down a proposal from some of its leaders for joining hands with the Congress in an effort to checkmate Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh. The proposal was mooted by former Union Minister Salim Sherwani, Deoria MP Mohan Singh and former State Minister Naresh Aggarwal at a core group meeting of the party held last week. But a majority of party leaders including chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, former Union Minister Janeshwar Mishra and former State Minister Mohd. Azam Khan opposed the move.
Wary of being run over by a rampaging BSP in the event of mid-term polls, the Sherwani-Singh-Aggarwal trio wanted the party to forge an electoral tie-up with the Congress in an attempt to stall the advances being made by Mayawati’s socio-political project in the state.
Sherwani has been an old advocate of forging ties with the Congress so as to shore up the Samajwadi Party’s “secular” cre¬dentials and cement its ties with the Muslims.
Arguing against arriving at any sort of understanding with the Congress, Mulayam Singh Yadav warned that any such move would knock off, once and for all, the Samajwadi Party’s support-base among the Muslims. “Why should the Muslims back us after we have embraced the Congress ? For them, the Congress would emerge as a more attractive secular destination the moment we join hands with them,’’ the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister is said to have told his party colleagues.
His contention was endorsed by Mishra and Khan, who wanted the party to retain its exclusive identity by maintaining equi-distance from the Congress and the BJP. The formula had served the party well in the past, they asserted, and would continue to do so in the future.
While deciding against the tie-up with the Congress, Mulayam Singh Yadav is learnt to have said that UP was headed towards a bipolar polity with SP and BSP representing the rival poles. He said the situation suited SP well by making it the automatic beneficiary of the discontent that the incumbent BSP may gener¬ate, and it should not allow the waters to be muddied by aligning with the Congress when the latter remains moribund.
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