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Chandigarh Cong. calls for meeting to discuss `fracas'

CHANDIGARH JUNE 25. Even as the Chandigarh police are still enquiring into the alleged fracas between the Mayor, Subhash Chawla -- a Congressman -- and a local advocate in the Card room of the prestigious Chandigarh Club here recently, virtually all the office-bearers of the local unit of the Congress, barring Mr.Chawla, have shot off a letter to the local unit party chief, B.B. Bahl, seeking an urgent party meeting to discuss the unsavory episode.

According to highly-placed sources, all the six vice-presidents -- Ram Pal Sharma, Kulbhushan Gupta, Dharambir Manchanda, Shresta Mehta, J.N.Shastri and Amar Nath Sarhadi -- and the four general secretaries -- Sunil Parti, Surender Bhatia, Bhupinder Kaur and Chandermukhi Sharma -- have written to Mr. Bahl expressing deep concern as the "incident'' widely reported in the media had "lowered the image of the party.'' Mr. Chawla is also a general secretary of the Chandigarh unit of the Congress.

Interestingly, all the office-bearers have risen above political loyalties as they belong to the factions headed by the local MP, Pawan Kumar Bansal, the former CTCC chief, Venod Sharma, and the former President of the All Indian Youth Congress, Manish Tewari. Some office-bearers told this correspondent that the meeting should rather have been convened immediately when the incident occurred as the image of the Congress had suffered an "erosion'' with the Mayor issuing different statements regarding the so-called "fracas.'' It was a matter of concern that the local unit of the BJP was trying to derive political mileage from the episode.

Interestingly, the letter also recalled that a former Congress Mayor, Raj Kumar Goel, was made to "resign'' after his name allegedly surfaced in a scandal involving the sale of soap and oil to the Municipal Corporation. The feeling among most partymen is that Mr.Chawla too should follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and the party leadership should immediately take remedial measures to restore the clean image of the Congress.

The CTCC chief, B.B.Bahl, told The Hindu that he had received the letter signed by practically all the office-bearers. The sentiments of the partymen would be honoured by convening a meeting.When asked whether any action was being contemplated against Chawla, he said that he would place the report of the independent enquiry conducted by him into the episode before the party and whatever decision was taken by the members would be conveyed to the High Command.

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