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| Feb 7, 2000 | ||
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| CONGRESS In with Sonia The party chief discards her coterie setting off a new race for proximity to 10 Janpath. By Lakshmi Iyer
At the centre of Sonia's rearguard action is an image makeover that has been underway for the past two months. In trying to reinvent herself, the Congress president has discarded her charmed circle of advisers, enlarged the consultative process and disassociated herself from the process of selection of candidates. The makeover has in a certain sense emanated from the A.K. Antony Introspection Committee report on the organisational dimensions of the party's dismal performance last October. Although the implementation of the Antony report awaits clearance of the Follow-Up Committee headed by AICC Treasurer Ahmed Patel, Sonia has begun adopting it selectively and expediently. Like her decision to set herself apart from the candidate-selection process. Party circles believe Sonia made it incumbent on the Pradesh election committees (PECs) to finalise candidates so that the party doesn't hold her personally responsible for any electoral disaster. Even the process of junking the so-called "coterie" stems from the Antony report. The report had identified Sonia's claim of the support of 272 MPs in April 1999 after the fall of the A.B. Vajpayee government, as the principle reason for public disaffection with the Congress. Within the party, it was the coterie -- a triumvirate of Arjun Singh, M.L. Fotedar and Vincent George -- that was held responsible for encouraging Sonia to make this untenable claim. Antony's report noted cryptically: "There should be a research/reference cell to provide better input for decision-making."
Sonia first signalled her detachment from the coterie by remaining a mute spectator when money-laundering charges were levelled against George. On his part, George has stopped giving Sonia political inputs, though he still dictates her appointment schedules. Then, in early January, she turned down Fotedar's request to accommodate him in the Rajya Sabha. The denial of a Rajya Sabha ticket to Fotedar was silently welcomed by a wide section of senior party leaders. Many viewed it as a signal to Arjun Singh, the most formidable coterie member. Keeping Singh out of Parliament and minimising his influence over Sonia is at the core of a survival agenda for most leaders outside the coterie. Singh is a contender for a Rajya Sabha berth in April this year when there will be six vacancies from Madhya Pradesh. Many Congress leaders hope that Sonia will take her anti-coterie stance to its logical conclusion. "She is a smart and savvy woman," gushed a senior AICC functionary. "She no longer depends on the coterie. Her networking is much larger than it was ever before. She now trusts AICC office-bearers. We send her weekly resumes of what is happening in the states under our charge." AICC functionaries maintain that the coterie has been made to pay the price for misguiding Sonia. In fact, everyone who blundered at any point except, of course, Sonia, has paid a price. Pranab Mukherjee, for example, was dropped as party general secretary for "mishandling" Haryana. And after his bitter experience of handling some states, particularly Orissa, Madhavrao Scindia opted out of organisational responsibilities. "I put in my request to be relieved of the party post thrice," said Scindia. "I wanted to focus on Parliament." It was a shrewd move. As deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Scindia now exercises greater power and influence within the organisation. Predictably, he denies any enhanced role. "That is not a correct perception. I don't interfere in anything beyond my mandate. I only air my views on issues which I strongly feel about. Just like any other Congress member." The denial doesn't have too many takers. With the coterie losing its earlier importance, there is jockeying for the eyes and ears of Sonia. The proximity game almost borders on an obsession. With organisational elections scheduled for May and June, Sonia's benign gaze can make or mar fortunes. "People are positioning themselves for CWC berths," explained a committee member. "By restructuring the AICC six months before the elections, Sonia has clearly indicated who are the people she wants in the committee. The rest of us have to play by the ear, rather by leveraging ourselves." According to party analysts, Sonia's bid to distance herself from the coterie was tactical. She in all probability created a vacuum to set off a new race for proximity to 10 Janpath. In being involved in the game, nearly the entire CWC has found a new meaning to political existence. "The race among senior leaders for the No. 2 slot has to an extent diluted any possible hostility to Sonia's authority," says a Sonia loyalist. "She has already secured a reprieve for the anticipated assembly election reverses." But there are unintended consequences. The removal of a buffer between Sonia and the regional satraps has led to an erosion of the Congress president's authority in the selection of candidates for the assembly elections. For Orissa, 80 candidates were cleared in Bhubaneswar by the state election committee. When the remaining 67 came before the Central Election Committee (CEC), PCC President J.B. Patnaik fought a hard battle. The CEC cleared 40 names. But before the other 27 could be cleared, the Orissa team left Delhi in a huff saying that Sonia could do as she deemed fit. Such a show of impertinence was unprecedented and could be a pointer of things to come. To the discerning few in the party, the coterie is only in a tactical retreat. Recent appointments to the CWC indicate that the influence of the erstwhile Congress (T) has not exactly waned. K. Natwar Singh has almost donned the mantle of R.K. Dhawan in bailing out Sonia from awkward situations at CWC meetings. "He is the new being in our midst. At working committee meetings, he constantly comes up with the refrain 'let us leave it to Madam'," observed a CWC member. But even in retreat, the coterie has found ways to assert itself. "The coterie is not really out," conceded an AICC functionary. "They have hitched their wagon to Scindia who treads the neutral ground. They have tactically allied with him." At CWC meetings, Arjun Singh can be found continuously consulting Natwar and acting in tandem. Who knows, after the elections they could be back with a vengeance. |
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