Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh today clarified his stand to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the broadside he had launched yesterday against ‘‘groupism’’ in the party. Sources in the AICC said he has been in touch with the party president to explain that none of his words were directed against her.Singh also spoke of the need for the party to discuss its stand on coalitions in view of the general elections in 2004. Senior leaders feel that such a discussion is sure to throw up the questions about the leadership of such a multi-party coalition at Centre.Meanwhile, an old associate of Singh and member of the erstwhile Congress (Tewari), Jagmeet Singh Brar has been divested of the charge of Chhattisgarh, which is going to polls this year-end. Brar is now a secretary of the AICC waiting for work allocation.Speaking on coalitions, Singh said: ‘‘Congress has to face the reality (of the ground situation). We have already accepted it (alliances) as an option.’’ He said that at Pachmarhi session of the party in September 1998, Congress had talked of coalition and alliances.‘‘The time has come... Lok Sabha elections are just a year away. In a couple of months, the party will have to decide on all India basis on the issue,’’ he said. But a day after his controversial speech at a function to mark the death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, the Congress was speaking in two distinct voices.Leaders who have felt sidelined supported Singh’s views, while others point out that castigating groupism, which is inevitable for any political party, will be a predictable tactics of those who are sidelined.Singh stressed that yesterday he was only talking about the organisational preparedness for the next elections, his reference to Rajiv Gandhi’s speech at the party Centenary in Mumbai on December 28, 1985, has left no doubts in people’s mind about what he meant. Rajiv Gandhi in his inaugural speech had said: ‘‘Millions of ordinary Congress workers throughout the country are full of enthusiasm for the Congress policies and programmes. But they are handicapped, for on their backs ride the brokers of power and influence, who dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy.’’
