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New Delhi
By Sujay Mehdudia
Since the formation of the Sheila Dikshit Government, the Congress high command has been sleeping over the matter and has been unable to decide how it should go about dealing with the situation in the Corporation. According to sources in the party, the AICC leader in charge of Delhi, Ahmed Patel, was of the view that the two posts held by Mr. Sharma should be split and instead of one individual, two people should hold these two positions. In fact, it was conveyed to everyone in the party that the two positions would be split and only those who were eligible should be asked to file their nominations. However, the party failed to decide on a single name for the post of chairman of the Standing Committee resulting in intense lobbying for the two posts. Mr. Patel said that four persons had been asked to file their nominations for the post of chairman of the Standing Committee and three of them would withdraw later. He said the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee should have decided the matter and AICC had very little role to play in the whole affair. In fact, it is understood that the DPCC president, Chaudhary Prem Singh, had been asked by the AICC to submit his proposals in this regard a week ago but he failed to do so. Factionalism in the party came to the fore with the dissidents deciding to go ahead with their own agenda. The Delhi Mayor, Ashok Jain, notified the elections without taking the high command into confidence. He was reprimanded for this act and asked to withdraw the notification which he did last night. However, the Municipal Secretary, who is the Returning Officer, refused to cancel the process. In the meantime, the lone BJP member, Vijender Kumar, also filed his nomination for the post ruling out any postponement of the electoral process. Meanwhile, Mr. Ram Babu Sharma along with some senior leaders lobbied at Town Hall and threatened to put up his own candidate for the post if his views are over-looked by the party. Even as a large number of Councillors virtually revolted against this move and complained to the high command, there was a talk of holding a secret ballot for the election and some Congress leaders were even talking in terms of joining hands with the BJP to teach the high command a lesson. However, the refusal to cancel the elections and intervention of the party high command changed matters overnight. After hectic consultations, the party decided to have four nominations for some strange reason. All these developments have shown that trouble is already brewing in the party. "At present, the leadership is weak and yet to recover from the losses suffered during the Assembly polls. This is the right time for the dissidents to assert themselves and get their way without inviting any punitive action," remarked a senior Congress leader. Although, the dust might have settled for the present, but the same situation could emerge after three months when fresh elections would be held to these and several other posts. Mr. Sharma, who since has become a MLA from Rohtas Nagar and spends more time in Town Hall than the Delhi Secretariat, would like to have his own men in strategic positions in order to keep his hold on the Corporation. An interesting battle between the various factions seems to be on hand.
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