Sonia seeks time, rebels raise bar

With five more partymen joining the Vidarbha Congress, the Congress today sought to placate the rebels by saying that it needs at least thre...

With five more partymen joining the Vidarbha Congress, the Congress today sought to placate the rebels by saying that it needs at least three more months to give a final verdict on the statehood demand.

The official line is that party president Sonia Gandhi is discussing the matter with senior party leaders from other parts of Maharashtra to gauge the legitimacy of the demand.

And a homecoming in the north

New Delhi: BJP national executive member Sanjay Singh, who had contested against Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Amethi in the last Lok Sabha elections, today returned to the party terming it a ‘‘home-coming.’’
With this the Congress seems to have taken the first step towards appeasing the opinion-making sections of Uttar Pradesh, like the Rajputs, who are dissatisfied with the Mayawati-led BSP-BJP government.
Singh rejoined the Congress at Veer Bhoomi, the samadhi of former prime minister Late Rajiv Gandhi, where he went to pay homage this morning.
Flaying the Mayawati government, Singh, who had left the Congress in 1988, said: ‘‘The Chief Minister has crossed all limits and now her only motive is to harass political opponents in Uttar Pradesh.’’
When asked what impact his rejoining would have on his wife Amita Singh, who is a Minister of State in the Uttar Pradesh government, Singh said: ‘‘We take our individual political decision independently.’’
However, for the Congress, Singh’s return would strengthen its prospects in Amethi and the neighbouring constituencies. ENS

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‘‘No action will be initiated against Vasant Sathe and N.K.P. Salve for quitting the party and forcing the high command to take a stand,’’ AICC general secretary incharge of Maharashtra, Vayalar Ravi, said in Solapur.

‘‘We have requested Salve and Sathe to give us three months’ time till the elections to the four states are over. They have agreed to wait,’’ said Ravi who was in the city to attend the 60th birth anniversary celebrations of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. ‘‘Both are senior leaders. Therefore, we will try to make them understand and see reason rather than rush into any action against them,’’ he further said.

Meanwhile, gaps are showing in the ranks of the Vidarbha protagonists. Three days after Salve and Sathe put in their papers, the third leader, Banwarilal Purohit, today tried to clear the mist over resignations of other prominent leaders. ‘‘They all are sending their resignations right away,’’ he told mediapersons, holding aloft the papers in his hands.

The leaders who announced their decision to join the Vidarbha Congress today include former MLAs Krishnarao Pandav, T.G. Deshmukh, Madhukar Wasnik and Vinod Gudadhe-Patil as well as Haribhau Kedar and Haribhau Naik. Purohit criticised former minister Madhukar Kimmatkar, a prominent pro-Vidarbha leader, and ex-MLA Ashok Dhawad for going back on their promise to resign. ‘‘They had raised their hands on Sunday. Now they have changed,’’ Purohit remarked. ‘‘One of them is on Development Board, the other is on MIDC. We should forget about small gains now,’’ he added.

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Vayalar Ravi said the move by Sathe and Salve would be unlikely to affect the prospects of the party in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections slated for 2004. ‘‘We have yet to study the effect of this move on the party prospects,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Chandrashekhar Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti told mediapersons here that a meeting of leaders from five ‘‘aspiring states’’ has been convened at New Delhi on September 9 to launch a ‘‘national front’’ for a joint statehood agitation.

Rao, who was in Nagpur to meet pro-Vidarbha leaders, said Ajit Singh of the RLD, Babulal Trivedi of Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha, former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, ex-prime minister Deve Gowda and JMM’s Shibu Soren have agreed to attend the meet which will discuss strategy for a joint agitation to press for Vidarbha, Telangana, Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh and Purvanchal’s statehood.