NEW DELHI: Despite the Bharatiya Janata Party posing a serious challenge to the Congress by raking up the issue of price rise, the Delhi unit of the party continues to be a divided house ahead of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit maintaining her distance from the DPCC leadership by avoiding most of the meetings organised by it.

As a result of the goings-on, rather than putting up a combined show of strength, the Congress appears to be fumbling at the starting line.

The developments have left the party cadre a worried lot. They insist that with the size of each ward being reduced to about 50,000 now, any division within the party rank and file would cost it dear. What has stirred the hornet's nest is the absence of Ms. Dikshit from the two district conventions organised by the State Congress at Jahangirpuri and Chandni Chowk on Friday.

While the party general secretary in charge of Delhi affairs, Ashok Gehlot, was present along with DPCC president Ram Babu Sharma, the absence of Ms. Dikshit was viewed with concern by the party cadre.

There is a general belief that Ms. Dikshit has been deliberately staying away from such meets as she feels that Mr. Sharma would orchestrate protests against her at such forums.

Also, it could also be a move by her to get even with Mr. Sharma who had in the past been her vocal opponent at important party meetings.

With the Congress facing a tough battle ahead due to a combination of factors, many believe that any setback to the party in the coming MCD polls would considerably diminish the standing of Mr. Sharma and thereby strengthen the hands of the Chief Minister, who has been facing severe dissidence over the past few years.

A Delhi Minister said it was not only with Ms. Dikshit that the party leadership has a problem, even Ajay Maken, who has been a Delhi Minister in the past and now considered the prime architect of the new Master Plan for Delhi-2021 as Union Minister of State for Urban Development, is not being projected as a leader of the Congress. "These are the acceptable faces for whom the people would vote, but they are not in the picture.

While other leaders have organisation skills, they are actually not crowd pullers.''

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