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THE NATION:
CONGRESS
Gain
Plan
Prasada
knows Sonia will be re-elected as party chief. His only aim: to show her
up as a factional leader through honourable defeat.
By
Lakshmi Iyer
When
senior Congress leader Jitendra Prasada filed his nomination for the top
party post on October 29, he was very nearly an isolated man. The former
party vice-president who once reigned at the heart of the Congress establishment
now looked a Don Quixote of sorts who had taken on the venerable Nehru-Gandhi
dynasty and the inviolable coterie. The 62-year-old MP from Shahjehanpur
filed five sets of papers-two from native Uttar Pradesh, one each from
Maharashtra, Bihar and Chandigarh- against a formidable 800 nominations
that the party machinery had commandeered from across the country for
Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
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| For
Sonia, the real test lies not in Prasada's rout but in holding on
to her office after election |
Only a handful
of MPs and MLAs from Uttar Pradesh-Lok Sabha members Begum Noor Bano and
Sujan Singh Bundela and Rajya Sabha member Gufran Zaidi-were willing to
openly identify with Prasada. In true Congress style, those who egged
him on in private chose to keep their peace with Sonia in public. His
long-standing associates such as former chief ministers K.Vijayabhaskara
Reddy, J.B. Patnaik and Virbhadra Singh publicly dissociated from him.
Neither the much reviled former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao-to whom
he had sent the Andhra list of PCC delegates to spot people who could
sponsor him-nor the sulking Nawal Kishore Sharma in Rajasthan responded
to his requests.
However,
two days after he filed his papers there has been an about-turn in Prasada's
fortunes.Though his effigy continues to be burnt outside the AICC headquarters
at 24 Akbar Road by indignant Sonia loyalists as a ritual each afternoon,
he has begun picking up support. Part of this is courtesy the fair-play
norms set by Central Election Authority Chairman Ram Niwas Mirdha.
Two days
after the nominations closed, Mirdha confirmed that the election would
be strictly by a secret ballot. More important, the ballot papers would
be mixed before counting to prevent any state-wise tabulation of the voting
pattern. Mirdha asserted his authority in a dramatic fashion. He made
this special announcement to the media without the AICC media department
being any the wiser.
The centralised
counting was a shot in the arm for the Prasada camp since it precluded
the possibility of his supporters being identified and subsequently hounded
by Sonia loyalists. It heartened those who see this election not as a
means to settle scores with Sonia-her victory is a foregone conclusion-but
as an opportunity to teach the much-despised "coterie" around
the Congress president a lesson.
Prasada
may not be as ideal a choice as, say, the late Rajesh Pilot to espouse
the cause of inner-party democracy. As PCC chief of Uttar Pradesh during
the 1997 party elections, he manipulated the electoral college extensively.
Nevertheless, many AICC and PCC members are willing to bet their votes
on him to convey their unhappiness over the present arrangement. "We
have nothing against Sonia. We are only against those advising her,"
says one leader.
Not even
the most optimistic of Prasada's supporters believe he is in any position
to defeat Sonia. The Prasada camp's objective is clear: honourable defeat.
Such a showing is possible if he secures some 25 per cent of the 9,000-odd
votes. A respectable rejection would automatically show up Sonia as a
"factional" leader. "She would not be able to make a single
nomination," says a leader. Party circles point out that state units
were likely to take more interest in the elections as contests for the
PCCs are being held along with those to the AICC and party president on
November 12.
Symbolic
Campaign: In more than one way, Prasada has caught the imagination
of party workers. First, his strategy to package his "struggle"
as a battle between the much-hated coterie and grassroots workers seems
to be evoking a response. To drive home the point, he has tactfully avoided
any frontal attack on Sonia. That he launched his token election campaign
after a visit to Sriperumbudur was also symbolic. He has been equally
restrained in questioning the slightly dubious composition of the electoral
college that will elect the party president. "The voters' list is
made up of Congress workers. I am appealing to their conscience,"
he says.
With less
than two weeks for campaigning, Prasada would be reaching delegates only
through letters and the media. His election tours are purely symbolic
as delegates are unlikely to be openly seen in his company. PCC chiefs
may take his phone calls but there is no question of receiving him in
the party office. Prasada thinks this is unfair. As UPCC chief, he recalls
receiving Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot-both candidates against then party
president Sitaram Kesri-at the Congress office in Lucknow during the 1997
party elections.
On Sonia's
side, her advisers are trying to use the contest to project her as a liberal
democratic leader. "The contest is clear proof of Sonia's efforts
to establish inner-party democracy," says Lok Sabha Deputy Leader
Madhavrao Scindia. But AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni, a former associate
of Sanjay Gandhi, isn't impressed by such niceties. "The Congress
worker wanted unanimity. He wanted the party to put a united challenge
against the BJP," she says. As for Sonia herself, her response to
the contest has disappointed partymen. To many, her assertion that she
would win the election anyway showed her up as arrogant and undemocratic.
She matched Prasada word for word. "There was no need for her to
respond to Prasada. During Kesri's time, the campaign was more dignified,"
rues an ex-MP.
There is
no doubt that Sonia would be convincingly re-elected as party president.
But her only problem is that the party seems jinxed for those who become
president after winning an election. None of the four stalwarts-Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose (1939), Purshottam Das Tandon (1950), K. Brahmananda
Reddy (1977) and Sitaram Kesri (1997)-who were elected after overcoming
a challenge survived for more than a year in office. Sonia's real challenge
is to break the jinx.
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