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| Wednesday,
November 8, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Cong men leave it to Sonia CHANDIGARH, Nov 7 — Keeping in line with the age-old tradition of sycophancy in the party, the Haryana Congress today left the issue of appointment of its President and other office-bearers to Ms Sonia Gandhi, who herself is locked in an electoral battle with Mr Jitendra Prasada for the post of party chief. This decision was taken by the party at an “informal” meeting of the newly elected Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) delegates held in the presence of two Central leaders, Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Natwar Singh, here today. Though the two leaders later denied at a press conference that they were responsible for motivating the delegates to take such a decision, a number of delegates confided in TNS that there was allegedly some prompting in this regard from these leaders. The decision was announced by the Haryana Congress President, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, at a press conference which was attended by these Central leaders also. The two Central leaders said it was not for them to convey the “sentiments” of the delegates to the Central Election Authority or the high command. They left the job to Mr Hooda. Mr Hooda expressed the hope that as always, Haryana would set the trend in this regard and other State party units too would authorise Ms Gandhi to appoint their office-bearers. However, the Punjab Congress President, Capt Amarinder Singh, who also came to the Haryana Congress headquarters in Sector 9 here, where the press conference was being held, refused to comment on what decision his party would take on the issue of PCC elections. He said he would be able to judge the party men’s sentiments in this regard only after a meeting of delegates. According to informed sources, a number of senior Haryana Congress leaders told the Central leaders that there was no doubt about their loyalty to Ms Gandhi. But the high command should take a decision about the President of the Haryana Congress at the earliest because the party was losing ground to leaders like Mr Bansi Lal since it was not able to highlight the grievances of the people and shortcomings of the Chautala Government due to its infighting. Barring Mr Bhajan Lal, the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party, and Mr Shadi Lal Batra, MLA from Rohtak, all other 19 MLAs met the Central leaders. Among the PCC delegates who met Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Natwar Singh were Mr Khurshid Ahmed, Ms Kartari Devi, Ms Prassini Devi, Mr Phool Chand Mullana, Mr Nirmal Singh, Mr Chiranji Lal Sharma, Mr Kuldip Sharma, Mr Satinder Rana, Dr Ram Prakash, Mr Jagdeep Cheema, Dr K.V. Singh, Mr Kamal Sharma and Tikka Jagjit Singh.  |
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Manmohan, Natwar deny
coterie CHANDIGARH, Nov 7—Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Natwar Singh, senior Congress leaders, today denied that there was any coterie surrounding Ms Sonia Gandhi in the party as alleged by another senior party leader, Mr Jitendra Prasada. They were addressing a press conference at the headquarters of the Haryana Congress after meeting newly elected PCC delegates, whom they urged to vote for Ms Gandhi on November 14 in the elections for the party President. They said even Mr Prasada had denied that he ever talked about any coterie in the Congress. The Haryana Congress President, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was also present at the press conference, claimed that all 150 PCC delegates of the party would vote for Ms Gandhi. The Central leaders denied that they had been sent by the high command to Chandigarh to campaign for Ms Gandhi. Mr Hooda intervened to say that the two leaders had come on their own because they genuinely felt that the Congress alone could keep the country united and make it strong and Ms Gandhi alone was capable of strengthening the party. When asked if the high-voltage campaign in favour of Ms Gandhi had been launched because her supporters suspected a defeat for her, Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Natwar Singh ruled out any such danger. They said they had come here because in a democracy one must contact voters. They claimed that the Congress Working Committee and all PCC Presidents had unanimously supported Ms Gandhi. They did not find anything wrong with the decision of Mr Prasada to contest the party elections. They said no one had stopped Mr Prasada from contesting the elections, which would not weaken the party in any manner. They said there was no danger to democracy in the Congress. When more probing questions were asked by newsmen, Mr Natwar Singh showed signs of irritation, while Dr Manmohan Singh was cool as usual. On Mr Prasada’s allegation about the unfairness in the election process, Mr Natwar Singh said let first Mr Prasada explain what he did when he was in charge of the organisational elections in 1997. Mr Natwar Singh said it was strange that if the elections were held in the Congress, the press described the process as infighting. If the elections were not held, then critics said there was no inner democracy in the party. Similarly, if the party leaders contacted the voters, questions were raised and if they did not meet the delegates, still objections were raised. On whether the Congress was safe in the hands of Ms Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh said they had full confidence in her. Mr Natwar Singh said the Congress was in power in twice the number of states ruled by the BJP. Mr Hooda added even if the number of seats in the Lok Sabha had come down, there was no erosion in the Congress share in the vote bank. The Congress leaders denied that the party had double-faced leaders. They were reacting to a newsman’s query on why the party leaders sulked over the alleged inefficiency of Ms Gandhi, while they lauded her leadership in public. |
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