The Hindu : New Delhi News : Government, party drifting apart

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 13, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Government, party drifting apart

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, DEC. 12. Despite claims to the contrary and public assertions, the gulf between the Congress party and the Government in Delhi has widened with both working in opposite directions. Ever since the installation of Ram Babu Sharma as president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, the process of consultation and discussions before taking important decisions has virtually come to a standstill leading to serious differences on various issues.

On the other hand, Mr. Sharma, who has been the personal choice of the party high command, has been unable to carry out any kind of shake up in the organisation or install any of his close supporters in the team of office-bearers due to serious differences within the rival group. Interestingly, Mr. Sharma is still to get the nod to dissolve the old team of office-bearers and such a situation is likely to continue for the next few months in view of the organisational polls early next year. Political observers feel that what has added to the woes of Mr. Sharma is the sharp differences within the senior party leaders of the dissident factions over the line of action to be adopted against the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit. It is no secret that many of these senior leaders have come together with the sole aim of taking on Ms. Dikshit. However, this time round, they are not being vocal about their demand and are understood to pointing out the follies of the Government to the party high command to back their case.

What Mr. Sharma has lacked during the past one month is the effort to make the party act as a ladder between the cadres and the Government to bridge the gap. He has been so busy with the celebrations and felicitations that he has been unable to properly define the role of the organisation in the functioning of the Government and the party. Similarly, after his installation, Mr. Sharma has come to be closely associated with the Outer Delhi Member of Parliament, Sajjan Kumar, something not appreciated by other senior leaders including Union Minister for NRI Affairs, Jagdish Tytler, the Delhi Assembly Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, the former Minister, Pervez Hashmi, and the former DPCC president, Subhash Chopra, who had joined hands to get Mr. Sharma installed as the DPCC president despite opposition by the Chief Minister's camp. What has irked these leaders is that while they had left no stone unturned to ensure that a pro-Sheila loyalist does not make it to the DPCC, Mr. Sharma continues to bank on Mr. Kumar despite the fact that he is considered close to the Chief Minister also.

Interestingly, Mr. Sharma's attempt to get the Delhi Ministers to sit in the DPCC office once every week to listen to public grievances has failed to materialise in view of the lack of response from the Chief Minister. Similarly, it is understood that Mr. Sharma and his colleagues have brought to the notice of the party high command certain decisions taken by the Sheila Dikshit Government in the recent past that have either burdened the poor or have allegedly benefited certain vested interests. They have also pointed out the attempts to marginalise the role of the elected representatives by giving unprecedented powers to Residents' Welfare Associations (RWAs) without any accountability system in place. It is learnt that the senior party leaders now plan to take up with the party leadership the issue of filling up of nominated posts of various Boards and Corporations in view of the failure of the Chief Minister to consult the party on this matter. It is understood the party has decided to submit its own list of names for these posts to the party high command and plan to take up the matter with the AICC general secretary in-charge Delhi, Ashok Gehlot. This is likely to complicate matters as the Chief Minister would also come under pressure from her team of supporters not to succumb to such pressure and go ahead with nominating her own people to these positions.

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