Development and governance took a back seat at the Congress chief ministers’ conclave here today as party president Sonia Gandhi got down to the more crucial business of drawing the party strategy for the coming Assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. While she would work out the finer points of her strategy during subsequent parleys with her party colleagues, Sonia, in her inaugural speech, outlined party unity and an aggressive posture towards the Sangh Parivar as the two key features of the Congress line of action. While she complimented Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for taking on the VHP head-on, there was no mention of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who has been of late experimenting with soft Hindutva through a variety of issues like Bhojshala, cow-slaughter ban and the ‘‘cake controversy. Sonia, in an obvious reference to the Hindutva forces, said ‘‘enemies of amity lurk everywhere and in every community. Without referring to VHP general secretary Pravin Togadia or his trishul diksha programme, she said, ‘‘I would like to compliment the Rajasthan CM for the stand he took on the attempts of the VHP to disturb harmony in that state. With elections around the corner, we cannot afford to relax our vigil, for this is the time when merchants of hate get overactive to polarise society.’’ She also made it clear that the next elections could be won only by a ‘‘united effort’’. This did not mean that she was endorsing what leader Arjun Singh had pointed out the other day. She was obviously asking for a ‘‘united effort’’ by all party leaders because it was a pre-requisite to the emergence of the Congress as a fighting machine in the elections. ‘‘Victory will depend crucially on co-ordination between our state government and our party organisation and machinery,’’ she added. Sonia also expressed worry about another drought year. ‘‘The probability of another year of stress can no longer be discounted,’’ she said. She is doing as much fire-fighting as she can by writing letters to the Prime Minister seeking a higher drought relief assistance. In order to position herself as a prospective coalition prime minister, she showcased the PDP-Congress alliance by terming it ‘‘a bold, new beginning’’. The common minimum programme, she stressed ‘‘is an article of faith for us’’. This said, she had a more daunting task at hand in the crucial state of UP, where she still had to come out openly to prop-up an alternative alliance led by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.
