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Sonia wrests the initiative from BJP

Staff Reporter

Assures the traders that the Congress party is with them

NEW DELHI: By extending an assurance to the traders that her party is with them, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has wrested the initiative from the BJP and its leadership for the time being. The irony is that the traders and their associations who are inclined towards the BJP looked to the Congress president for relief rather than BJP leaders including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani.

This was the general feeling among the BJP and Congress MLAs on the first day of the winter session of the Delhi Assembly. The issue also came up in the Vidhan Sabha during the debate on the no-confidence motion moved by the BJP on Monday. The division within the party was not limited to the Congress; in the BJP, legislators violated the official party line and lodged their strong protests on the sealing and related issues without the support of senior party leaders inside and outside the House.

In private, BJP MLAs confessed that the party had failed to capitalise on the issue due to internal divisions and the Congress continued to be in command of the situation.

Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said the BJP had no right to speak on the issue of sealing as it was the Congress that had taken action and given relief. He said no senior BJP leader had spoken in favour of the traders nor taken up their cause publicly but it was Congress president Sonia Gandhi who had assured the traders that they would be given relief.

Mr. Lovely said the BJP during its regime had appointed an MP from Delhi as Union Urban Development Minister (Mr. Jagmohan) and the Congress had also nominated an MP from Delhi (Ajay Maken) to be in command of the Union Urban Development Ministry. However, the difference between the two was that Mr. Jagmohan always talked of demolitions and bulldozers while Mr. Maken has been talking of re-development of Delhi and giving relief.

Agreeing with the views expressed by Mr. Lovely and his colleagues, the BJP MLAs are sore that the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) patronised by the BJP had to reach out to Ms. Gandhi to seek a solution to the problem. "The most unfortunate part is that neither Mr. Vajpayee nor Mr. Advani thought it fit to take up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or speak on the issue in support of the traders. They left the field open to the Congress party to take credit leaving the BJP to face the flak," a senior party MLA remarked.

The BJP leaders were also upset at the statements of Mr Jagmohan. A majority of them felt that that he should be asked to keep quiet on the issue or be expelled from the party.

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