New Delhi, December 22
Sunday’s resignation drama in the Congress party is learnt to have been scripted by a group of “young” AICC office-bearers with the specific objective of securing the resignation of the party’s top brass. However, the exercise boomeranged when the seniors refused to oblige them.
It now transpires that contrary to all members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) tendering their resignation, as was being made out yesterday, only eight or 10 AICC office-bearers had put in their papers. Among those who took the lead in this exercise included general secretaries Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, Kamal Nath and Ahmed Patel.
Several older leaders, including K. Natwar Singh, Arjun Singh and Mohsina Kidwai, complained to Congress president Sonia Gandhi about the manner in which the resignations of CWC members were being sought.
They were also furious that they were being made to pay for the mistakes of AICC office-bearers like Ambika Soni and Ahmed Patel, who were the key decision-makers in the recent assembly elections. “Sinners cannot ask us to follow suit,” one senior leader is reported to have told the Congress president on Sunday night.
Faced with irate leaders, it was left to Ms Sonia Gandhi to put the record straight. An official statement was, therefore, issued late on Sunday night clarifying that the party president had not accepted the resignations of the AICC office-bearers, who put in their papers over the week-end. They were asked to continue for the time being and told that, as and when, the organisation is revamped, they would be informed about the changes.
For the record, party spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy maintained that contrary to all CWC members, only some AICC office-bearers had tendered their resignation. He denied that the move was initiated at the behest of the party president or that it was meant to secure the resignation of other leaders.
Already bitter and divided after the party’s rout in the recent assembly elections, this
episode has ended up creating further schisms among the leaders. The CWC leaders, whose resignations were being sought, are pointing fingers at Ms Ambika Soni, Mr Ahmed Patel and Mr Kamal Nath for enacting this charade to deflect attention from their role in the party’s debacle. “Some people just wanted to become martyrs,” commented one senior leader while another maintained it was an attempt to create a rift between the younger and older leaders.
Party sources said the suggestion of a party shake-up came up at a meeting of senior leaders at the Congress President’s residence on Friday night. It was in this context that it was mentioned that some of the older leaders ought to be replaced by younger ones as the former had outlived their utility. Ms Gandhi apparently did not respond to this suggestion. Her silence was, consequently, taken as her consent.
After this meeting Ms Soni, Mr Patel, Mr Kamal Nath and Mr Wasnik sent in their papers and
subsequently informed the others, hoping all would follow suit. As it happened, only a handful obliged. Having painted themselves into a corner, the embarassed foursome then tried to get out of this embarassing situation.
