India News Online » News Analysis » Indian Politics » 

Congress preparing for electoral battles

	August 13, 2007

With Assembly elections due in several important states within the period going upto the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress high command is gearing up the party organisation. The leadership has directed the organizational managers to prepare a blueprint for a two-year campaign across the country which is scheduled to be launched during September-October by Sonia Gandhi who will embark on a country-wide tour. Part of the action plan is a resolve to fine-tune the coordination between the organiza¬tional wing of the party and its governments - both in the states and at the Centre - and an imminent move to make changes in a series of PCCs and frontal organisations, which are in a state of lethargy.



The attempt at organisational revitalisation, sources say, could also reflect in the next reshuffle of the Union Cabinet and AICC Secretariat with some people returning to the party wing and vice versa. The party leaders also expect the leadership to bring clarity on the role, if any, of Rahul Gandhi without fur¬ther delay. At a 10 Janpath meeting, Sonia Gandhi recently di¬rected CWC member in-charge of organisational matters. Oscar Fernandes to prepare a plan of action to be drawn for five zones - North, South, East, West and Central.



Incidentally, the campaign launch is timed ahead of the November Gujarat Assembly polls, the first of a series of import¬ant electoral battles in states that could set the tempo for the next Lok Sabha polls. Apart from Gujarat, elections are scheduled in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Nagaland (ruled by BJP-led Front), and Delhi. Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh (controlled by the Congress.)





Special cell to re-examine Mumbai Riot cases



Facing flak over lack of action on the Srikrishna Commission Report on the 1992-93 Mumbai communal riots, the Maharashtra Government has set up a special cell to re-examine cases related to the riots in which over hundreds of people were killed. But city police commissioner D.N. Jadhav, said in Mumbai on August 10 that the police did not have the powers to reopen cases withdrawn in the court. He was responding to a question from a media person whether cases against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackrey would be reopened. Several cases were filed against Thackrey against his alleged inflammatory writings in the party mouthpiece, Saam¬na, but many of them were withdrawn.



The special cell will re-examine cases relating to the riots, monitor the ones which had charge-sheets and look at the possibility of reopening cases if there was enough evidence. Jadhav said of the 31 policemen indicted by the Srikrishna Com¬mission, criminal proceedings had been initiated against nine.



The Maharashtra Government’s action came after pressure from various quarters including the Congress high command for implementing the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission. The Commission report had been gathering dust since Justice Srikrishna submitted it in Feb. 1998. The riots were allegedly led by BJP and Shiv Sena activists as well as police during Dec. 92 and Jan. 1993.



The Congress high command reportedly asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to explain what action his government had taken on the finding of the Srikrishna Commission. Congress president Sonia Gandhi also asked Deshmukh through AICC general secretary Margaret Alva what action he had planned. Sources said the party’s central leadership was critical of the delay in informing it of his Government’s action on the Srikrishna re¬port. The issue is likely to figure in the Monsoon session of Parliament which began on August 10.



In the meantime, Chief Minister Deshmukh has said that the state government would examine whether the riot cases mentioned in the Srikrishna report could be reopened.



Party president Sonia Gandhi has had to intervene in the affairs of the party and Government in the national capital also. On Monday, August 6, she reportedly sent a grim message to both Chief Minister Sheila Dixit and her detractors asking them to mend their ways and keep their mouths shut in public on internal differences. Sheila Dixit and three of her dissident Ministers were called to 10 Janpath on August 6 and given the stern mes¬sage. The differences in the Delhi unit of the Congress came into the public domain after controversy erupted over the rags to riches story of Ashok Malhotra, alleged kingpin of a multi-crore land scandal.





New Vice President takes office



Mohd. Hamid Ansari was sworn in as the country’s 13th Vice President on Saturday, August 11, at a ceremony in New Delhi. Seventy-year old Ansari was administered the oath of office by President Pratibha Patil. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders were present at the swearing in ceremony.



A day earlier, Ansari who was a nominee of the UPA-Left combine, was elected to the high office securing 455 votes in the electoral college of 788. NDA candidate Najma Haptullah got 222 votes while UNPA candidate Rashid Masood got 75 votes.



While the UNPA was more or less able to keep its constitu¬ents together, the NDA managed to garner less than its estimated strength of 238 votes. NDA managers suspect that Mamata Baner¬jee’s Trinamul Congress may have supported Ansari, another dis¬play of differences in the opposition alliance.



The Prime Minister, his cabinet colleagues and Rajya Sabha MPs bade farewell to former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekha¬wat on August 7. Observers say some of the rancour which marred the presidential election which Shekhawat lost to Pratibha Patil lingered



Although there was no manifestation of the bitterness, either in what was said or in the atmosphere in the convention hall of the Parliament annexe, the occasion was solemn and ob¬served with the precision of a ritual that had to be gone through.



It was largely bereft of the emotion and bonhomie that might have marked an occasion to say adieu to a politician supposedly gifted with the art of making friends and winning over adver¬saries.



The former Vice President got his share of compliments from the speakers who included Manmohan Singh, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman K. Rahman Khan and Priya Ranjan Das Munshi.



Manmohan Singh said as Rajya Sabha chairperson, Shekhawat “set new benchmarks for legislative conduct.... We will miss your style of conducting the Rajya Sabha”.



On his part, Shekhawat said: “The heated debates (in the Rajya Sabha) were followed by humour and friendliness.... I always believe that politics should involve debates without rancour, discussions without bitterness, criticism without creat¬ing adversaries.”





Congress-Left on collision course in Andhra Pradesh



There is no end to the differences between the Congress and the Left parties on the land issue in Andhra Pradesh. AICC general secretary incharge of Andhra Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, held discussions with state CPI leaders in Hyderabad on August 9 in the backdrop of the Left parties plan to launch another round of land struggle. The CPI(M) which is in the forefront of the agitation of land distribution stayed away from the meeting.



Emerging from the meeting, CPI leaders stuck to their demand for constitution of an independent land commission for identifi¬cation and distribution of farm land and house sites. On his part, Digvijay Singh asked the Left Front to suspend its agita¬tion as the Rajsekhara Reddy Government was working on land distribution. He said the state government is ready to discus the issue with the Left parties.



Earlier on Monday, August 6, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and his CPI counterpart A.B. Bardhan met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence in New Delhi and said that the land struggle in Andhra Pradesh would be intensified in case the Left demands were not met by the state government.



They sought the appointment of an independent land commis¬sion and Ministry of Land Reforms.



In the meantime, Amnesty International, global human rights watch group, has flayed Andhra Pradesh police for excessive use of force against agitators at Mudigonda recently resulting in the death of seven persons. The Amnesty said the protest did not warrant such a response from the police.



The Amnesty report has given fresh ammunition to the Left against the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh while the CPI(M) has not acted on a similar report from Amnesty on the killings in Nandigram, West Bengal.





Strike hits Left-ruled states



A nationwide strike of unorganised workers sponsored by the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) disrupted normal life in Left-ruled West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura on August 8. It had little or no impact elsewhere in the country. CITU claimed that about four and a half crore workers responded to the strike call. The strike was in support of demands for minimum wages and ade¬quate social security for workers in the unorganised sector. CITU president M.K. Pandhe said in New Delhi that the draft Bill proposed by the Government would be opposed by the Left parties in the present form. He demanded comprehensive legislation for the unorganised sector.





Karat on Kerala visit to end factional fighting



CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat during his visit to Kerala last week, tried to end the factional warfare in the state unit of the party. At the state party secretariat meeting in Kochi on August 10, the two camps in the party were asked to end their civil war as it is harming the party.



The secretariat, meeting at a point where the V S Achutha¬nandan and Pinarayi Vijayan factions have taken their factional war to unprecedented levels, had General Secretary Prakash Karat and Politburo colleagues R Umanath and S Ramachandran Pillai attempting to keep things in control, and the two sides away from each other.



The CPI(M) is all set to begin its crucial series of branch-level conferences next month leading to the state conference. With the two leaders still showing no signs of backing off even after both were suspended from the Politburo, and preparing to have a go at each other at the conferences, Karat pushed a stern code of conduct.



CPI(M) sources said the Politburo code is three-pronged.



The code warns that any attempt to keep away those with “differences of opinion” from the branch meetings would be taken as anti-party activity.



The code also asserts that discussions of the “unhealthy” kind, and personal attacks, should be strictly avoided.



Obviously not wanting to leave things entirely to the offi¬cial faction for holding the conferences, Karat’s third canon says a mechanism will be put in place to oversee the conduct of the conferences. But it does not spell out if that meant the Politburo will play a more proactive role in conducting the conferences.