The Hindu : New Delhi News : Congress plans Raj Ghat march

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Friday, Sep 28, 2007
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New Delhi

Congress plans Raj Ghat march

Staff Reporter

Will commemorate “International Ahimsa Diwas” on Oct.2

Announcemnt made at party leaders meet
Manmohan Singh to address gathering at Raj Ghat

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Congress leaders and workers would march from the party headquarters on Akbar Road to Raj Ghat here to commemorate “International Ahimsa Diwas” on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2, a meeting of Delhi party leaders convened by general secretary Ashok Gehlot was informed on Thursday.

This meeting, the first of its kind since J.P. Agarwal took over as president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee recently, was attended by all senior leaders of the DPCC, MPs and all the members of the Delhi Cabinet led by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The meeting was brief and the party leaders were only informed about the programme for October 2. It was announced that the march would start at 8:30 a.m. and reach Raj Ghat by 10 a.m. where the activists and leaders would be addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Though the agenda for the meeting was apolitical, according to party leaders it was significant since it brought all factions of the party together at a time when the Congress is increasingly preparing itself for mid-term polls. Also, with the Delhi Assembly due next year, the party wants the Delhi Government and the DPCC to work together for putting up a good show.

There is also a sense of urgency which appears to be creeping in as time is short for turning the fortunes of the party around. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections in April this year, in which the party had to face defeat, had clearly shown that the party has a lot of ground to cover if it were to win the Assembly elections for the third successive time and that infighting and differences between the Government and the DPCC would have to be ended if the prospects were to improve.

With Mr. Agarwal taking over the reins of the party from Ram Babu Sharma, who was widely considered Ms. Dikshit’s nemesis, the Chief Minister’s supporters have heaved a sigh of relief. But there are still too many power centres in the Delhi Congress working against each other.

Recently when Congress president Sonia Gandhi inaugurated a scheme for providing houses to the poor at Bawana, much was read by the observers into the way senior leader and local MP Sajjan Kumar was not invited to the dais. Likewise, the absence of Mr. Agarwal from the “Mahapanchayat” organised by Mr. Kumar at Talkatora Stadium did not go unnoticed. Also, while the divisions in the Delhi Cabinet are all too well known, the manner in which re-allocation of portfolios of A.K. Walia, Haroon Yusuf and Arvinder Singh Lovely was announced as a sort of “punishment” did not help in bringing them any closer to the Chief Minister.

In all, the Congress in Delhi still seems a house divided where people with divergent interests are living together with unease. Thursday’s meeting has provided a glimmer of hope to party leaders that things might improve in the days to come.

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