The Hindu : Congress, BJP taken aback by Shukla's move

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 15, 2003

National

National

Congress, BJP taken aback by Shukla's move

By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI APRIL 14. The political scene in Chhattisgarh has changed with the senior Congress leader, Vidya Charan Shukla, joining the Nationalist Congress Party last week. The fact that he has a strong following in the State — despite being out of power for a long time — has taken aback the ruling Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The grand reception Mr. Shukla got at Raipur on arrival from Mumbai after joining the NCP rings alarm bells for the Congress, the popularity of which has dropped in the past six months. The Congress faces resentment from people and discontent from within. The NCP might be a platform for those unhappy with the Congress but do not wish to associate themselves with the BJP. The party provides an opportunity for those from within the Congress who did not want to end their political career by quitting the party.

Mr. Shukla, who had been a strong contender for the Chief Ministership after the creation of Chhattisgarh, had been sidelined apparently because the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, had no love lost for him. When the State was created, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, had been mobbed by Mr. Shukla's supporters for backing Ajit Jogi's candidature.

While the BJP is elated that this `division' that would help them, the Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, is confident that Mr. Shukla's departure would not harm the BJP. Mr. Jogi says that Mr. Shukla's departure would take away a chunk of high caste votes from the BJP and hence damage its prospects in the coming elections. But the BJP chief whip, Mahesh Tiwari, in a statement said that the work of his party of defeating the present Government has been made easier by Mr. Shukla.

Mr. Jogi might dismiss this as insignificant, but he called a meeting of the party MLAs and discussed Mr. Shukla's exit. The legislators were asked to `hold' their workers who might be lured by the opponent. Even the senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh, has said that Mr. Shukla's departure would damage the party's interest in Chhattisgarh.

It might be relevant to point out here that when Mr. Shukla had left the Congress in 1987-88 to join V.P. Singh's Jan Morcha, his party had won 16 seats in the Assembly, all of whom had later re-joined the parent party. Today, he might not be a power centre, but he cannot be ignored because of his grassroots support. A fact proved by the 20,000-strong leaderless crowd who greeted him at the railway station on his arrival from Mumbai. "The people had come on their own and not ferried like it is done in the case of political leaders. Crackers worth several lakhs were burst and it was a riot of colour, more colourful than Holi itself,'' says a political observer.

It is not going to be easy for Mr. Shukla either.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National