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Sunday, Aug 05, 2007
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Infighting resurfaces in Congress

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Party fails to corner Bharatiya Janata Party over land scam

BJP targets Chief Minister, Transport Minister and Maken
The scam happened when BJP was in power, says Congress

NEW DELHI: While it should ideally have used the Ashok Aggarwal case to put the Bharatiya Janata Party on the mat as the matter pertained to 2000-2002 when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was in power at the Centre, the current infighting in the Delhi unit of the Congress has taken the focus away from the issue of land scam to matters like allotment of fancy VIP numbers and canteen allotments in which no “crime” can be made out.

No sooner did the issue made headlines, various political managers in the party got into the act of tarnishing the image of their rivals. Only here the Congress leaders found more foes within their own ranks than in the BJP. Both BJP Delhi unit president Harsh Vardhan and Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Jagdish Mukhi came out openly against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf since most of the vehicles seized by the CBI from prime accused Ashok Aggarwal bore fancy VIP numbers.

The BJP also targeted Union Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken indirectly by seeking to impress that the scam involved the Delhi Development Authority that falls directly under this Ministry.

But rather than holding the BJP by the collar and calling its bluff, the Congress wasted much time bringing out the real truth. “Some people in the Chief Minister’s camp tried to malign Mr. Maken and Mr. Yusuf through the episode. They also resorted to spreading a canard against Delhi Finance Minister A.K. Walia stating that he had dinner with the accused a few days ago and against Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ram Babu Sharma. It was like trying to hit all the birds with one stone,” a source said.

In fact, Mr. Sharma said for two hours a news channel that had been selectively briefed by a “master planter” ran his name as one of those close to Ashok Aggarwal. “It was really something the party could have done without,” he said.

However, it was some astute thinking by some senior Congress leaders that saved the day for the party on Thursday. Mr. Maken managed to procure a copy of the FIR lodged by the CBI, as also details of the DDA and Delhi Assembly canteen contracts bagged by Ashok Aggarwal. “This land scam has hurt the interests of thousands of poor jhuggi dwellers and we needed to bring out how it happened when the BJP was in power,” a senior Congress leader said.

Since it was revealed that the period in question was when the BJP was in power at the Centre, the DDA canteen contract was allotted by the outgoing NDA Government and the Delhi Assembly canteen contract was also won by the accused in 1994 when Charti Lal Goel of the BJP was the Speaker, the party decided to hit back.

An emissary discussed the issue with Ms. Dikshit after which the DPCC president was given all the papers and was asked to hold a press conference for distributing them. “The main issue is of land scam and the BJP should not be allowed to get away scot- free with it,” said a senior party leader.

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