Amitabh Shukla
New Delhi, August 6
Opposition to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the Congress is not new. But this time, it is a “do or die” situation between the group opposed to Dikshit and her camp followers. “Either Dikshit goes this time or the three ministers and DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma,” said a senior Congress leader on the unfolding political saga in the Capital.
Headcount of the 47 Congress MLAs and their loyalty test has already started in the Congress. Though leaders say that in Congress, the party president decides about leadership and not the MLAs.
With a little over a year left for the Assembly elections, the MLAs are getting jittery. They feel that with the current trend, they might not be able to save their seats in next year’s elections. “Dikshit is no longer a guarantee for electoral success as the results of MCD elections have indicated. Anti incumbency is strong and severe infighting within the Congress. Unless drastic political steps are taken, the fortunes of the party would continue to decline,” said a three-time Congress MLA.
The Dikshit camp was silent. It was only when three ministers A.K. Walia, Haroon Yusuf and A.S. Lovely went to 10 Janpath that a close aide of Dikshit told his confidantes that “they had been pulled severely”. One of the MLAs, close to Dikshit told HT, “Dikshit is the only political face in Delhi who can win elections. Ministers are dispensable, the CM is not,” he said.
Interestingly, all the big names in the Delhi Congress are aligned with the group of ministers opposed to Dikshit. These include Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken, DPCC President Ram Babu Sharma, Sadar MP Jagdish Tytler, amongst others. The anti-Dikshit camp claims the support of at least two dozen MLAs and three of the six Lok Sabha MPs from Delhi. The group says that it is concerned about the prospects of the party in the city and an introspection needs to be done on the failures which led to the debacle in the MCD elections.
Party insiders say that a meeting of all the key players in the political drama will be convened later this week to thrash out the issues. “The coordination committee, which is supposed to iron out the differences between the party and the government would this time sort out differences within the government,” said a DPCC office-bearer.
Meanwhile, the functioning of the government remained paralysed on Monday with the ministers busy preparing their political strategy. All of them came briefly for the Cabinet meeting but soon dispersed to chalk out their next move in the political game of one upmanship.
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(2007)
Political battle-lines drawn
Amitabh Shukla
New Delhi, August 5
With battle lines drawn between the two factions of the ruling Congress, the Delhi Cabinet would meet on Monday to discuss the issue of land scam, fancy numbers and other issues. Three of the six ministers in the Cabinet have already come out in the open against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for what they call as “failure of the CM to defend her ministers and tendency to attack them in public”.
“Cabinet means collective responsibility and the Chief Minister is defeating the very principle with selective pot shots at the ministers,” one of the dissident ministers told HT. He said this has hurt them as the CM is supposed to side with the ministers on any issue.
The CM camp, on the other hand, accused half a dozen leaders of the Congress, including three ministers, of fomenting trouble for the democratically elected government. Brahm Pal, a three time MLA and firmly in the Dikshit camp, said with a little over a year for the Assembly elections, we should concentrate on defeating the BJP rather than slighting each other within the party.
When HT asked whether he was offered one of the cars owned by Ashok Malhotra, the alleged kingpin in the land scam, Brahm Pal said in Congress cars don’t change government. “I was never offered any car nor anyone approached me. I am with Sheila Dikshit,” was all he said.
The Congress leaders, opposed to Dikshit’s style of functioning have now drafted a letter for Congress President Sonia Gandhi. AICC general secretary in-charge of Delhi, Ashok Gehlot had on Saturday asked them to give their complaint against Dikshit in writing. Sources in the party said the letter lists Dikshit’s failure, her alleged soft corner towards the distcoms, failure to investigate a BSES scam highlighted by HT recently etc. Citing “ground electoral feedback”, the letter apparently said if things do not improve, BJP might get Delhi on a platter in the 2008 elections.
In the churning within the Congress, several new alignments have taken place. The Dikshit camp now has the support of Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar along with former Speaker Subhash Chopra and AICC Secretary Parvez Hashmi. This group has the support of a little over a dozen MLAs.
The group opposed to Dikshit does not have any leader but “collective leadership”. It, however, has the presence of formidable leaders. The ministers in this group include A.K. Walia, Haroon Yusuf and Arvinder Singh Lovely. Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken, Sadar MP Jagdish Tytler and DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma.
“We will await the response of our party president. We want things to be sorted out for the sake of the party,” said one of the leaders in the second group.
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