The Hindu : Congress a divided house over party tickets

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 02, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Congress a divided house over party tickets

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, APRIL 1. The process of distribution of party tickets for the seven Lok Sabha seats from Delhi has left the Congress party here sharply divided. Even before the high command could announce the names of the candidates for the seats, the party is faced with increased factionalism and infighting that could upset the leadership's calculations of wresting a majority of the seven seats from the Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming polls.

It is learnt that there was a lot of bickering during the meeting of the Central Election Committee (ECE) on Wednesday when differences between the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, Chaudhary Prem Singh, came to the fore before the CEC members and the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi. It is learnt that Mr. Prem Singh reportedly took an opposite stand when the issue of a party ticket for Sandeep Dikshit, son of the Chief Minister, from East Delhi seat came up for discussion. Known to have reservations with regard to Mr. Dikshit's candidature, the DPCC president immediately proposed the name of Anil Bhardwaj, a little known Congress activist. In fact, the name of Mr. Bhardwaj today evoked negative reactions within the party and many of the MLAs and Councillors expressed reservations about extending support to his candidature. Mr.Dikshit's candidate has been aggressively supported by a large number of party MLAs including the two trans-Yamuna Ministers, Arvinder Singh Lovely and A.K. Walia. "Under the present circumstances, there are only two people, Mr. Sandeep Dikshit and Mr. Ram Babu Sharma, who can register a win in the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat if given the party ticket,'' remarked a senior leader.

In fact, it is learnt that Mr. Prem Singh, to the surprise of all the CEC members, at one point of time suggested the name of senior Congress leader, Natwar Singh, from the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat. It is also understood that he supported the candidature of former Deputy Speaker, Kiran Chaudhary from the Outer Delhi seat if it had to be given to a member of the Jat community. Interestingly, the sitting MLA from Hastsal, Mukesh Sharma, was the second choice of Mr. Prem Singh indicating his opposition to the nomination of Sajjan Kumar, who received support from unexpected quarters in the shape of Ms. Dikshit. In fact, speculation was rife the entire day today about the gains and losses made by the various factions after the CEC meeting with many predicting a tough time for the Chief Minister and others preferring to adopt the wait and watch policy.

There was general feeling within the rival group that Ms.Dikshit would be cornered on the issue of her son and would have to compromise her position in other seats. However, it is learnt that Ms. Dikshit would be meeting the Congress president tomorrow evening or on Saturday in wrap up the proceedings regarding Delhi.

In fact, as it was known that the CEC is not likely to deliberate on Delhi anymore, the focus shifted to the senior party leaders in the AICC. Those having access to the Congress president were the most sought after. Large groups of Congress leaders and workers thronged the residence of the AICC in-charge Delhi, Ahmed Patel, and the Chief Minister to seek their blessings for the party nomination. Others not wanting to give up the fight easily continued to find some outlet or the other to reach out to the Congress president or her close aides in order to get their point of view conveyed.

However, the atmosphere within the Congress has been badly vitiated and this has resulted in a sharp divide. There were warnings from the elected representatives and the grassroot leaders that imposing any outsider or giving a party ticket to any hi-profile leader who does not have a base in the city politics would mean giving a clear advantage to the BJP.

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