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Sunday, Nov 07, 2004

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National

Congress infighting out in the open

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, NOV. 6. Even as the Chandigarh Vikas Manch floated by the former Union Minister, Harmohan Dhawan, has decided to re-enter local politics after a long hibernation by deciding to contest the forthcoming by-election to the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation on November 28 by fielding O.P. Verma, the "infighting" in the Congress over selection of candidate has come out on the streets.

Interestingly, the third major player -- the Bharatiya Janata Party -- has not yet announced its nominee as it seems to be waiting to see who is ultimately fielded by the Congress. The BJP had won the seat (Ward No.11 comprising Sectors 20 and 33) in the 2001 elections. However, the vacancy arose after its Councillor, Gian Chand Gupta, recently resigned his seat as he has been made Treasurer of the Haryana unit of the BJP.

Mr. Dhawan, who unsuccessfully contested the recent Lok Sabha polls from here on the INLD ticket, sharply criticised the local Congress MP, Pawan Kumar Bansal, and the Congress-dominated Corporation for failing to deliver the goods. He asserted that Dr. Verma, who lost to Mr. Gupta in 2001 by nearly 60 votes, stood good chances of winning the seat as he lived in the Ward and was in close touch with the residents. He felt that the "outsider" issue being raised by the local residents had validity and asserted that if the Congress went ahead with fielding an "outsider" as was being projected, the C handigarh Vikas Manch would obviously stand to gain.

Meanwhile, the war of attrition in the local unit of the Congress between the camps owing allegiance to Mr. Bansal and the local party chief, B.B. Bahl, has further intensified over the "green signal" reportedly given to the local Youth Congress President, H.S. Lucky, by the AICC general secretary, Janardhan Dwivedi, that he would be fielded as the party's nominee. A section of partymen are aggrieved that Mr. Dwivedi "bypassed" the formal selection process initiated by the local party unit which is still under way. Some of them, including a leader who has formally filed an application before the CTCC to contest the polls, even burnt an effigy of Mr. Dwivedi here yesterday afternoon and openly expressed resentment at the manner in which "democratic norms" had been flouted to favour Mr. Lucky, considered to be close to Mr. Bansal. Interestingly, a meeting convened by Mr. Bahl yesterday to select the nominee for the seat reached a dead end in the wake of pressure that the mandate be officially given to Mr. Lucky. A sub-committee has been set up to resolve the issue and to appease the aspirants who had formally applied to the CTCC as per procedures and it is likely to submit its report tomorrow.

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