NEW DELHI: Much of this week a three-member team headed by senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has been holding hands of the ‘rebel’ group of Assam MLAs led by Hemant Biswal to somehow quell the crisis in the party there. Dissidence activity at a subterranean level contributed to the Congress’ poor show in the Lok Sabha elections and has since snowballed into a no-confidence against Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
The rebel group pushing for Gogoi’s ouster—despite Sonia Gandhi’s refusal to accept his resignation—wants a fresh election for a new CLP leader in the state. Biswal with support of a substantial number of MLAs is demanding a “no-strings attached’’ CLP election, denied which they’ll move a motion against the CM in the Assembly. Gogoi, in turn, wants a face-saver exit whereby he gets to name the successor, preferably Bhubaneshwar Kalita.
Kalita is no friend of Gogoi, but in this case, the two have closed ranks to keep Biswal at bay. They’re even hinting that the three-member AICC panel “is taking too lenient a view of the rebel’s demands”. Azad and C P Joshi, other members, have had four rounds of inconclusive meetings, hard at resolving the crisis.
Not that Joshi or Azad themselves are on sure footing. The tug-of-war in Assam Congress, in fact, holds a mirror to what is happening at the party headquarters on a larger scale. The AICC reshuffle, some say, may see Joshi shunted back to Rajasthan where the party is in a slide to nowhere. Sachin Pilot, the Rajasthan PCC chief appointed at Rahul Gandhi’s behest not-so-long-ago, can be brought back to AICC as general secretary.
Pilot’s name surfaces in the curious list of 50 Rahul Gandhi commanders who are said to be waiting in the wings to take over and revamp the Congress, Rahul Gandhi style, from Panchayat to Parliament, no less.
Similarly, Azad would have liked to helm the party affairs in J&K in the run up to the Assembly elections, has been made Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, firmly tying him down to parliamentary politics and to other job of fixing party troubles. In the current situation, the Upper House is of utmost importance to the Congress, the only forum where it has a slight edge over the NDA government. Hence, Azad is not expendable.
Another senior leader, B K Harisprasad, who has shown little success in helming affairs of election-going states as general secretary has been brought into Rajya Sabha from Karnataka. Known to be one of the trusted hands of the party old guard, he may be not entirely eased out of AICC but his role may be altered.
Just like another general secretary Shakeel Ahmed, who’s currently in charge of crucial states like Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. Though Congress slipped up in managing a Rajya Sabha seat for him from JD-U’s Bihar kitty, he may be heading back to his home state for a second attempt at revamping the party there.
The same fate could await the larger-than-life general secretary Digvijaya Singh, vis-a-vis Madhya Pradesh. Also accommodated in Rajya Sabha, he may be made to try breathing some life back into the party in his home state, Madhya Pradesh, where he has not done much in the last 10 years, except for getting his son elected.
But the impending AICC reshuffle, the Congress seniors still insist, may not be on as a massive scale as is being anticipated. “It is likely to manifest in changes being initiated in the election going states’’—that is Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi and J&K. In Maharashtra, sources say, CM Prithviraj Chavan is unlikely to be removed so close to the polls as it would give a “wrong signal’’.
The reshuffle, a senior leader of the party indicated, could be linked to the Chintan Shivir the Congress may have in July or August.
“If the Chintan Shivir takes place, the reshuffle may either get delayed or be on a smaller scale,’’ he said, adding that a massive shake-up may lead to more dissident activity. But the high command can hardly keep the suddenly out-of-job younger members of the party without assigning them meaningful roles.