The Hindu : New Delhi News : Dissidents have their way

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 30, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Dissidents have their way

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, MARCH 29. A showdown between the loyalist group led by Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the dissidents group in the Delhi Congress was avoided today following the Chief Minister's decision to withdraw her three nominees from the panel of House Committees, paving the way for nomination of members proposed by the rival group. However, things are expected to turn bitter with Ms. Dikshit reportedly writing to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, complaining about the "conduct'' of the legislators concerned.

The turn of events also heralds the revival of the dissident movement against Ms. Dikshit and rising resentment among the MLAs to her style of functioning. Voices of protest against the Chief Minister and some of her Ministers were also heard during the ongoing budget session. The beginning was made in the Congress Legislature Party meeting where a number of members clashed with Ms. Dikshit on the issue of corruption. Later, even inside the House the Congress legislators pinned down their own Government on a number of issues.

According to party sources, today was the last date for filing of names for nomination to the three House Committees -- Estimates Committee, Public Accounts Committee and Public Undertaking Committee. Except in the year 2000, the elections have been unanimous without any contest. As the 5 p.m. deadline neared and with the loyalist group having submitted six names each for the three committees, the dissidents decided to jump into the fray thereby forcing elections to be held. Claiming that they had 24 votes with them, the dissidents went ahead and filed their nominations with the Returning Officer, Siddharth Rao.

However, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Chief Minister, Nasib Singh, briefed Ms. Dikshit on the moves of the dissidents and the support they enjoyed. On assessing the situation, the loyalists felt that in the event of a contest, things might just turn out in favour of the dissidents and any loss at this stage would prove to be a big setback for the Chief Minister. Therefore the loyalists decided to compromise and the names of three MLAs from the rival group were included in each of the House Committee. For instance, in the Estimates Committee, Anil Bhardwaj, is the choice of dissidents while the loyalists include C.S. Kandera, Amrish Gautam, Mahabal Mishra, Vinay Sharma and Rajesh Lilothia. For the Public Accounts Committee the rival group has nominated S. C. Vats and the Government nominees are Kiran Walia, Vir Singh Dhingan, Narendra Nath, Ramesh Lamba and Baljore Singh. For the Public Sector Undertakings Committee, the rivals have nominated Vijay Lochav while the Government nominees are Varsha Singh, Bhisham Sharma, Mala Ram Gangwal, Praladh Singh Sawhney and Brahm Pal.

In a related development, it is learnt the Ms. Dikshit has shot off a letter to the Congress president complaining against the conduct of the MLAs concerned. It has been pointed out that Mr. Bhardwaj had been appointed to the newly constituted Disaster Management Committee and Mr. Lochav had been made chairman of the District Development Committee (West).

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