The Hindu : NCP factions take the battle to poll panel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2004

National

National

NCP factions take the battle to poll panel

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI, JAN. 27. The rival factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today took their battle to the Election Commission. While P.A. Sangma and his supporters demanded that they be recognised as the real NCP, the supporters of the party chief, Sharad Pawar, later filed a caveat urging the Commission to give them a hearing before taking any decision.

Mr. Sangma called on the Deputy Election Commissioner, A.K. Mazumdar, to press his claim as the representative of the real NCP. He urged the Commission to immediately allot the party flag and symbol to his group.

Mr. Sangma claimed that he enjoyed the support of the rank and file of the party, besides a majority of its elected members. He is also reported to have argued that as he continued to adhere to the party ideology of barring people of foreign origin from holding positions of high office in the country, his faction should be recognised as the real NCP.

Mr. Sangma's claims were quickly questioned by the parent party. While senior leader and former Bihar Chief Minister, Jagannath Mishra, accused Mr. Sangma of "acting at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party," the party spokesman, Praful Patel, maintained that there was only one NCP and that it was headed by Mr. Pawar.

Claiming the support of an "overwhelming majority of the party's elected representatives, workers, working committee and national council members," Mr. Patel ridiculed claims that the party had been split. "It is nothing more than a storm in a teacup," he said. The party also challenged Mr. Sangma's claim of commanding the support of the entire north-east, by producing Holkhamang Haokip, a Lok Sabha MP from outer Manipur, at a press conference. "His [Sangma's] support base is confined to only a few legislators in Meghalaya," Mr. Haokip said.

On Mr. Sangma's charge that Mr. Pawar had compromised on the basic ideology of the party by agreeing to a tie-up with the Congress, the NCP spokesman explained that at the party's national council held a year ago, Mr. Sangma had piloted the political resolution which had called on the party to work towards dislodging the BJP-led Government and strengthening the secular forces in the country. "All that we have done is to implement the national council's resolution," Mr. Patel said.

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