The Hindu : Cong. leaders rock their own boat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 01, 2003

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Cong. leaders rock their own boat

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JAN. 31. Severe infighting in the Delhi unit of the Congress, triggered by immature conduct of certain senior party leaders, has come as music to the ears of the BJP. Instead of fighting the communal forces and the Sangh Parivar, the Congressmen are busy rocking their own boat by raising questions about the performance of their own Government in Delhi. Many BJP leaders who were jittery about their party's prospects in Delhi are now feeling elated and hoping that this mudslinging could well set the tone for the downfall of the Congress in Delhi.

Many senior Delhi BJP leaders feel that they need not do anything extraordinary under the given circumstances as the Congress seems bent upon destroying itself. "We are watching all the developments very amusingly. They are busy among themselves and have no time to reply to the charges levelled by us on various fronts,'' remarked the Delhi BJP president, Madan Lal Khurana.

What has surprised BJP leaders is the manner in which Congress leaders made belligerent speeches during the meeting of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday. Instead of targeting the BJP, majority of senior leaders talked of distribution of tickets during the forthcoming Assembly elections in a bid to propagate their own cause and that of their supporters. They also used the occasion to virtually threaten the MLAs siding with the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, that if they do not come to party meetings or join hands with them, they would be denied party nominations.

``What came as a major surprise was that these senior leaders took upon the role of the party general secretary and issued veiled warnings. And the party general secretary was busy creating confusion about the future of the leadership in Delhi which was something which should have been avoided publicly,'' a senior BJP leader remarked.

Political observers point out that while these leaders have left no occasion to ensure that they are "noticed'' by those who matter in AICC, many of them have either not been given party ticket for the past several years or have lost badly. A number of party leaders, especially the young and energetic leaders, feel that it is high time the party paved the way for new leadership and applied a cultural change in the organisational set-up. "These worn-out leaders have a questionable track record. Their standing in their so-called strongholds is also under a cloud as the party has lost badly in their pockets during the previous elections. A new crop of leaders and representatives should be inducted into the Delhi Congress who have clean image and are not seen as a cunning and unscrupulous lot,'' a senior Minister stated.

On the other hand, many in the Congress feel that the present situation should not be allowed to go on. It will create such a bad blood within the party that no amount of reconciliatory measures would be able to sort out the mess which will ultimately prove detrimental to the interests of the organisation and the Government.

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Cong. leaders rock their own boat