NEW DELHI: In what is being seen by some in the Delhi unit of the Congress as a self-destructive move, many of the party representatives did not turn up to vote for former MCD Standing Committee chairman Mukesh Goel in the election that sends two municipal representatives to the Delhi Development Authority Board, leading to his defeat.

Party insiders claim that there were standing instructions to the MLAs -- of whom only one turned up -- not to vote for Mr. Goel, who is considered close to Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ram Babu Sharma.

Strength

In the election, all the 272 Councillors, 14 MLA comprising a fifth of the strength of the 70-member Delhi Assembly, seven Lok Sabha MPs and two Rajya Sabha MPs were eligible to vote.

All the 295 electors were allowed to vote for only one person each. In the end, Sudesh Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party polled 95 votes while Rajesh Gehlot, also of the BJP, secured 88 votes.

Mr. Goel managed only 65 votes despite the Congress having 67 Councillors, eight MLAs and eight MPs.

"If they had all voted for him, he would have secured 83 votes. And with the help of Independents the party could have secured a seat. With the Congress being a divided house, the BJP -- which has 164 Councillors, and one MP and six MLAs who were voting -- got a total of 183 votes, 12 more than its actual strength'' said a senior leader.

"While the opposite camp may have succeeded in its designs to ensure Mr. Goel's defeat, it has resulted in a situation where both the Councillors on the DDA Board now would be members of the BJP,'' he added.

"The infighting in the party has reached an extreme level and this is just an example of how short sighted the approach of the leaders can be. Scant regard has been paid to the interest of the party in an important Board where matters pertaining to land in Delhi are decided. As a consequence, the Congress has lost an opportunity to have a greater say in the functioning of the DDA,'' the party leader said.

Of the five non-official elected members on the DDA Board, three are now of the BJP and two of the Congress. Earlier this ratio was four of the Congress to one of the BJP. While both Councillors are now from the BJP, from the Delhi Assembly the representatives are MLA Mange Ram Garg of the BJP and MLAs Mahabal Mishra and Jile Singh Chauhan of the Congress.

Tussle

The election has once again brought to the fore the tussle for power between Mr. Sharma and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

While Mr. Sharma, who had been instrumental in distribution of party tickets during the recent MCD polls, is now being blamed for the debacle, Ms. Dikshit had distanced herself from the election campaign -- except for a small appearance towards the end -- to avoid being accused for the party's poor performance.

Also, she had openly expressed her unhappiness with the manner in which the party tickets were distributed.

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