Crossing The Sonia Barrier

Nehru's ‘trickle-down’ seems to have become passe in his own party. The first direct challenge to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s writ from the party’s state units, rather than from the Congress Working Committee, indicates that the tide has turned and its now bottom-up. By voting against official party nominees, mlas from West Bengal, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh ensured a poor showing for the Congress in the Rajya Sabha elections last week.

Discontent in the party, palliated by the formation of a non-nda government in Bihar and the success of the anti-rss agitation, has surfaced again. Dissidents in the cwc last week met and began lobbying with Congressmen. "When we lost the Lok Sabha, we said we’d win Vidhan Sabha. When we lost Vidhan Sabha, we said we’d win Rajya Sabha. Now, there are no more sabhas left to lose," observed a senior Congress MP close to 10, Janpath.

For Sonia, West Bengal is the immediate problem. Summing up the sentiments of those who had charged 10, Janpath with high-handedness in the selection of Rajya Sabha candidates, pcc general secretary and mla Sultan Ahmed observed: "The Congress high command didn’t show any respect for the feelings of the party workers in this Rajya Sabha elections. We were very unhappy with the candidate selection and that was reflected in the results."

The West Bengal unit appears ripe for a split. Although the Congress has 69 mlas in the assembly, official candidate D.B. Roy - backed by acting pcc chief Priyaranjan Das Munshi and opposed by cwc member Pranab Mukherjee - garnered only 36 votes. It’s estimated that apart from the 12 mlas who openly aligned with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress, another 20 voted against Roy, an old Rajiv loyalist.

In fact, Congress chief whip in the assembly, Abdul Manan, supposedly campaigned against the official nominee. Former pcc chief Somen Mitra, who was the popular choice of mlas and corporators, is said to be extremely upset and open to an alliance with the Trinamul Congress. Incidentally, Mitra was Mamata’s bete-noire when she was with the Congress. She has issued an open invitation to the disgruntled Congressmen saying, "Now is the time for a grand alliance of anti-Left Front forces."

The high command hopes to contain dissidence by negotiating an alliance with the Trinamul for the forthcoming municipal polls in the state. "We need Mamata and she needs us," points out cwc member Ambika Soni, adding that nothing had been worked out so far. Disciplinary action will have to wait because it is feared that show-cause notices could precipitate the break-up of the party.

Likewise in Orissa at least one-fifth of the Congress mlas voted against 10, Janpath’s choice, an independent and a former bureaucrat, R.K. Nayak. While the Congress spokesman accused party mlas of having been "bought", an aicc functionary admitted that Nayak was an unpopular choice. In Maharashtra too, the nomination of Dilip Kumar has upset local leaders. "If they wanted to reward him for campaigning during Lok Sabha, why was he not fielded from UP, where he toured? He did nothing for Maharashtra," said a party MP from the state.

In UP, the party had hoped to garner 26 votes for its nominee, Inder Khosla, reportedly the choice of Rae Bareli MP Satish Sharma. "We had a firm commitment from 22, who took ballot papers from us," said upcc chief Salman Khursheed. Khosla managed only 14 votes, indicating that at least one Congress mla and three others affiliated with the party had backed down. Just as Mukherjee is being charged with sabotage in West Bengal, Jitendra Prasada is being accused of playing foul in UP. Even in Karnataka, where all three Congress nominees won, nine mlas cross-voted, prompting CM S.M. Krishna to call for "introspection".

The list of disgruntled Congress leaders is growing by the day and at least seven cwc members are reportedly prepared to confront Sonia. Pranab Mukherjee is believed to be upset over party spokesperson Ajit Jogi’s insistence that he didn’t brief the press properly on the Congress delegation’s meeting with US President Bill Clinton. Jogi denied Mukherjee’s statement that Sonia had said the party supported a "minimum nuclear deterrent". The fact that Jogi - and not a senior leader like Natwar Singh - was asked to contradict him has hurt Mukherjee. Manmohan Singh is also miffed over the left turn in the party’s economic policy.

Karnataka MP and former Union minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief is angry that Rehman Khan was given a Rajya Sabha seat from Karnataka while the claims of senior Dalit leader C. Hanumanthappa were ignored. So were those of cwc members K. Vijaybhaskara Reddy, Natwar Singh and Motilal Vora. Loyalists of Madhavsinh Solanki - who was denied a Rajya Sabha nomination because he had supported Rajesh Pilot’s contention that the party should not project anyone as prime minister last year - held a protest rally in Ahmedabad. Former Gujarat chief minister Chhabildas Mehta and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal have both criticised the functioning of the party.

The dynasty sits uneasy as the rebel ranks swell. The Congress, it seems, will be undone by the bahu and her brigade.