The Hindu : Patel may have to do a balancing act

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 18, 2003

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Patel may have to do a balancing act

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI MAY 17 .As the dust settles down on the new dispensation in the Delhi unit of the Congress, the new man in charge of the party, Ahmed Patel, faces the uphill task of forging peace among the faction-ridden camps. This problem, if not put to an end or settled, has the potential to upset the Congress applecart and could even lead to a possible drubbing in the Delhi Assembly elections scheduled for November this year.

Mr. Patel, who is also the political secretary to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, is not new to Delhi and virtually knows all the political heads of the local Congress. But what could make his job tough is the severe infighting within the Congress and the sharp divide among the factions led by the DPCC president, Subhash Chopra, and the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, whose differences are well known. This has resulted in both the party and Government pulling in opposite directions with little hope of any truce in the near future.

Political observers are of the view that Mr. Patel would have to do a balancing act and try to end this feud which threatens to derail the party's bid to retain power in Delhi and create history. The senior party leaders including Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler along with Mr. Chopra do not see eye to eye with the Chief Minister. But within the dissidents also there is division with the former MP, J.P.Aggarwal, distancing himself along with the Assembly Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, whose name is being dragged into the controversy by vested interests.

The faction led by Mr. Chopra is of the view that partymen have been ignored and the Chief Minister is more influenced by bureaucrats and NGOs than her own party MLAs or party workers in the decision making process. They also complain that senior party leaders are being sidelined just to settle political scores. However, this is countered by the loyalists who contend that the party has done nothing but tried to unsettle the Sheila Dikshit Government during the past three years or more. They point to the failure of the party set-up to highlight the good work done by the Congress Government and instead all efforts were directed to discredit the Chief Minister, a process that has still not been given up by the dissident group.

In addition to this scramble for power, Mr. Patel also faces the uneasy task of leashing the Congress Councillors whose reputation over the past few months has taken a beating and they are being closely associated with corrupt officials and practices which have marred the image of the party. The manner in which the Congress-ruled Corporation has been going out of the way to protect corrupt officers is something amazing.

The Congress Councillors, many in the party feel, are fast turning into a embarrassment for the party and their actions need to be controlled in order to undo the damage. "Apart from the infighting, it is the Congress Councillors who could prove to be the weak link for the Congress in the Assembly polls. Their corrupt ways and poor performance could badly affect MLAs who do not get along with their local civic body representative. Mr. Patel should first get this particular section under control and then proceed to set things right in other areas,'' a senior leader remarked.

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