The Hindu : Congress will not impose its leadership on others: Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 29, 2003

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Congress will not impose its leadership on others: Sonia

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI Dec. 28. Giving a further push to the idea of a coalition to "defeat anti-secular forces" in the next elections, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today said the party did not and would not impose its leadership on others. She told like-minded parties that "we must set aside all our differences to put up a compact alliance."

"Who gets to be the Prime Minister will be decided by the people. The Congress does not and will not impose its leadership on others and say who should head which party," she told newspersons just before he left for New Delhi after a two-day visit to this city where she got the party into election mode. She said it was entirely an internal affair of the Congress as to who should lead the party.

Ms. Gandhi said the party had not interfered with, nor does it intend to in the future, the internal affairs of other parties because it was "unfair" to do so.

Earlier this year in Shimla, Ambika Soni, AICC general secretary, had more or less suggested that those who wanted to join the Congress in an anti-NDA alliance would have to accept Ms. Gandhi's leadership.

When Ms. Gandhi's attention was drawn to the Nationalist Congress Party president, Sharad Pawar's statement that his party was willing to set aside the issue of "foreign origin," she said: "I am not aware of Pawarji's statement."

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, with the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Sushilkumar Shinde, at a press conference in Mumbai on Sunday. — PTI

Asked whether the foreign origin issue had become irrelevant, she said: "It is for the people of the country to decide.

Several parties, including the NCP, have had reservations about Ms. Gandhi leading a coalition to fight the BJP-led grouping. The NCP has, however, said that "contentious issues" could be set aside.

At one point, Ms. Gandhi conceded that the issue of a merger between the NCP and her party could be discussed, though no such a proposal existed. That response, however, only went to underscore her thrust that differences on other issues should not come in the way of fighting the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

The involvement of the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Maharashtra and Meghalaya in sustaining secular governments, according to Ms. Gandhi, was a signal for the future and already her party was holding talks with several others to achieve a unified, secular opposition. She said that setting aside their differences, the Congress and the NCP was in Government in Maharashtra.

Ms. Gandhi said she had been meeting Mr. Pawar in Parliament and at home. Specifically on the issue of a coalition, "we will certainly have to meet. We are already together in the Government" here and some of the Congress leaders in Maharashtra had been in touch with him. But on more pointed references to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, she conceded that the situation was rather "fluid."

After a fairly impressive rally held here yesterday, Ms. Gandhi exuded optimism about bringing the other parties into a broad coalition. She even went on to speak frankly on the reasons for the wins and the losses in the recent Assembly elections in which the Congress secured only Delhi.

If in Delhi the party retained the Government because of the anti-incumbency factor at the Centre, in Rajasthan, good work got washed out by five years of difficult drought. The Congress also failed to match the BJP's aggressive publicity campaign and, from these, the party was learning its lessons and preparing for the challenges ahead. Social infrastructure and empowerment in Madhya Pradesh did not seem to match the expectations of the people.

Ms. Gandhi said that during her leadership the party's rank and file had maximum freedom and the party was not excessively centralised. In Punjab, Gujarat and Kerala there were difficulties, but thevarious elements of the organisation would have to work together. On Vidarbha, she said her party was ready to provide a coordination committee just as was given to Telengana. The issue of statehood was still being discussed.

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