Prasada sets stage for a colourful contest

NEW DELHI, OCT 30: Sonia Gandhi's challenger Jitendra Prasada today set the stage for a colourful contest by mounting a strident attack ag...

NEW DELHI, OCT 30: Sonia Gandhi’s challenger Jitendra Prasada today set the stage for a colourful contest by mounting a strident attack against her coterie even as the party chief’s loyalists began a massive countrywide exercise to ensure that no major upset took place and the dissident leader is made to “bite the dust” in the contest slated for November 11.

Releasing his “election manifesto” for the party president’s contest at a crowded press conference, Prasada blamed Sonia for the sorry state the party was in, although he took care not to name her directly. He asserted he had the answer for the ills facing the party in an eight-point programme chalked out by him, the highlights of which were his pet themes of free and fair elections, greater autonomy to party organisations, constitution of a Congress Parliamentary Board and respect for the party constitution.

He had harsh words for Sonia’s so-called coterie: “Coteries do not serve the party. They encircle the leadership… for their own vested interests they slander all those who refuse to be browbeaten, and misrepresent differences as proof of disloyalty. Coteries are a cancer which eat into the vitals of political parties.”

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The senior Congress Working Committee member said he would take his issues to all the PCC chiefs and also appeal to the PCC delegates to vote according to their “conscience”. He also claimed that he had no option but to fight, since the high command had failed to address his issues.

The party chief’s loyalists sought to downplay his challenge. CWC member Ambika Soni while referring to his attack on the coterie, took a dig at him, saying that he was probably talking about his own experience in the party.

On a more serious note, Sonia’s managers have got into the act, sending “instructions” to all PCC chiefs and other loyalists in various states to ensure they keep the flock of PCC delegates (who comprise the electoral college for the party president’s election) together till the polls. The PCC chiefs have reportedly been made personally accountable for the conduct of their delegates.

The exercise of re-scrutinising the list of PCC delegates, numbering over 8,500, has also begun at the AICC/PCC levels to isolate those among them whose loyalty is “suspect”, and try and win them over to their side. In an attempt to dissuade them from voting in Prasada’s favour, Sonia’s political aides have already been spreading the word that those who do not vote for her will be easily identified since the counting will be done state-wise and each voter will have a ballot number. The message is clear: those who do not follow Sonia will be targeted.

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The PCC chiefs have also been told to ensure that Prasada is snubbed if and when he comes visiting their state capitals to canvass for their support. That the party machinery will be blatantly used in the “Save Sonia” campaign in the coming days was made apparent today when the PCC units of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh made formal assertions in her favour. More such averments of loyalty are likely to follow in the coming days to steamroller Prasada’s challenge.