Sonia suspends Matang Singh from party

Party sources said the DAC’s volte face on Singh came after a meeting between Sonia and Reddy this morning. The party chief is believed to have conveyed her “unhappiness” at the DAC chairman’s earlier refusal to take action against Singh. Reddy was also reportedly informed that the party had decided to nominate him to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh in the forthcoming elections to the Upper House.

Apparently as a follow-up to the meeting and on the instructions of Sonia, Reddy convened an impromptu meeting of the DAC in the evening and decided to suspend Singh for “anti-party activities”. Interestingly, the decision was taken in the absence of two senior DAC members — CWC members Manmohan Singh and A K Antony, who could not make it to the meeting.

When contacted, Matang Singh declined to comment on his suspension.

Those present, apart from Reddy, were CWC member R K Dhawan, AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes and party MP Santosh Mohan Deb, who though not a member of the AICC DAC is the convener of the Assam state unit’s disciplinary action committee. The proposal to suspend Singh and issue him a show-cause notice was reportedly made by Fernandes and supported by Deb, a known rival of Singh.

Reddy’s change of mind in less than a week has triggered speculation that Sonia may have used the Rajya Sabha ticket offer to him as a bargaining point to take action against Singh. No new charges were placed before the DAC tonight: he was accused of encouraging dissidence and working against the party’s interests in his native state of Assam.

Party circles view the action taken against Singh as a show of authority by Sonia whose leadership has come under increasing criticism in the wake of the party’s dismal performance in the recent assembly elections. It is meant to be a signal for other dissidents that Sonia is firmly in command and that any move to dislodge her would be met with stern action.

Through Singh, Sonia loyalists have also sought to strike at former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, who was reported to be taking a keen interest in party affairs and had apparently become a “rallying point” for leaders unhappy with the present state of affairs in the party.

Several “discontented” leaders were reported to be in touch with Rao, through Singh. One of the reasons for taking action against Singh was that he was encouraging dissident activity and that the birthday bash of his son recently was attended by at least half-a-dozen CWC members known to be unhappy with Sonia.

However, several senior leaders view Singh’s suspension as a “knee-jerk action” triggered by an increasingly nervous party high command. They point to the fact that the Congress leader was not issued a show-cause notice by the DAC before initiating action against him and that the entire operation was carried out in a very “clumsy manner”.