The Hindu : Hide and seek in Cong. camp

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 07, 2003

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Hide and seek in Cong. camp

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI NOV.6. Even as the process of finalisation of candidates for the 70 Delhi Assembly seats enters the decisive stage, Congressmen here are bent upon their washing dirty linen in public. And with the party's Screening Committee holding its intensive scrutiny sessions in a hide-and-seek manner, the guessing game has become a favourite pastime for party leaders and prospective candidates. But with the Bharatiya Janata Party announcing its first list, the pressure is now on the Congress to get going with the job of clearing names.

Shrouded in secrecy, the meetings of the Screening Committee are being held daily but without any formal outcome. Interestingly, in order to avoid the rush of ticket seekers, the Committee has been forced to change the venue of its meetings a number of times during the past few days. Such is the close tab being kept by those seeking party tickets on the meeting venue that it was decided among the members of the Screening Committee to convey the venue at the last minute. And the rumour-mongers are having a field day with all kinds of information doing the rounds. At times it is about some sitting MLAs in trouble and in some other cases it is about some prospective candidates getting the nod. But all this is based on hearsay and no authentic information is available on the deliberations of the Committee.

And as if this was not enough, the Congressmen have been at each other's throat for the past few days. Delegation, crowds and local leaders, claiming to represent a particular segment or a community, are being despatched by the interested parties to the senior party leaders not only to plead their case but also run down their rival, which could be a prospective ticket seeker or a sitting MLA.

Be it the residence of the AICC leader in-charge Delhi, Ahmed Patel, or that of the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, or even that of the DPCC president, Chaudhary Prem Singh, huge crowds descend at these places right since early morning. In fact, Mr. Patel, known to avoid this kind of tamasha, has been flooded with petitions for and against a large number of candidates and sitting MLAs. Slogan shouting increases as the delegations reach Mr. Patel's residence and it is only after Mr. Patel walks out to meet them and at the same time reprimands them for displaying their lung power without any provocation that the sloganeering subsides. "I have been meeting dozens of delegations each day. What is most frustrating is that some people come again and again in different disguises without realising the fact that a representation made once is more than enough. They also walk in hearing rumours and do not bother to verify facts,'' Mr. Patel remarked.

The situation is no different for Ms. Dikshit who, after sitting through the exhaustive sessions of the Screening Committee, starts getting delegations from the ticket claimants and their supporters from early morning. Also the most sought after is the Screening Committee chairman, Motilal Vora, and its members, Oscar Fernandes, and the AICC secretary, Anil Shastri.

But certainly the prolonged process for finalisation of tickets is giving sleepless nights to not only the sitting MLAs but also those who are seeking new nomination.

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