The Congress, which is looking to revamp itself, may replace Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, according to party sources. The party leadership was also weighing the pros and cons of changing the Maharashtra and Haryana Chief Ministers, Prithviraj Chavan and Bhupinder Hooda, who head States where elections are due in a few months.
Sections of the party are worried that fresh incumbents may not have the time to turn the political tide against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the States.
On Saturday, the fate of the three Chief Ministers hung in the balance as party president Sonia Gandhi had detailed separate meetings with Mr. Hooda and Mr. Chavan in the wake of the party’s abysmal showing in the recent general elections. A final decision is expected next week.
Mr. Chavan, who arrived in the national capital late on Friday evening, met Ms. Gandhi’s political secretary, Ahmed Patel, around midnight for nearly an hour. This morning, he met senior party leader A.K. Antony and Ms. Gandhi late in the afternoon. The Maharashtra CM is understood to have told the party leadership that “the atmosphere of uncertainty was not good for the party”.
If Mr. Hooda is facing dissidence within the party — including party seniors from his State, Birender Singh and Kumari Selja — Mr. Chavan’s situation is somewhat more precarious. In addition to Maharashtra’s Congress MLAs, Sharad Pawar — leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party which is in alliance with the Congress in the State — too is gunning for his head.
Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mr. Antony had a long meeting with Mr. Pawar on Thursday at the latter’s residence in Delhi. The NCP is learned to be keen that Mr. Chavan be replaced by Mr. Pawar’s old protégé and former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, but the Congress feels that it should be the one to take the call on any changes.
Mr. Hooda told journalists in Sonepat some hours after his meeting with Ms. Gandhi that reports of his being dropped were “just rumours”. “All sections of society are satisfied with the functioning of the State government,” he claimed. Congress general-secretary-in-charge of Haryana Shakeel Ahmed too told journalists: “Change of leadership either at the PCC or CLP levels is not under consideration.”
Before meeting Mr. Chavan, Ms. Gandhi also met two other Maharashtra leaders Shivajirao Deshmukh and Shivajirao Moghe. Later, Mr. Moghe met Mr. Antony.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to be sent to Guwahati next week to assess the strengths of the rival camps in Assam by holding a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party before taking a final decision on whether to replace Mr. Gogoi.
In the case of Assam, >the Congress leadership had turned down Mr. Gogoi’s offer to resign , made in the wake of the general elections, from the Chief Minister’s post. But with increased pressure by the dissidents in the party’s State unit, led by State Education and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Congress leadership has been forced to reconsider its earlier decision.
Assembly elections in Assam are scheduled for 2016, but the term of the Haryana Assembly expires in October and that of Maharashtra in December this year.
