The nomination game begins at AICC headquarters

as the deadline for filing nominations approached. The last date for filing nominations was abruptly extended till Sunday. The electoral college for the voting was only half complete by this evening and party managers were going through the lists with a toothcomb, adding and deleting with a frenzy that spoke of desperation.

The lists of voters from Bihar and Orissa were released in the afternoon and withdrawn in the evening. The names from the biggest state of all, Uttar Pradesh, had not been announced.

“Sinister,” screamed Prasada in his seventh missive to head office. “It would appear that the delay is largely because of manipulations and pressure tactics.”

A shamiana was being hastily erected at his residence today for the circus of the next fortnight. Diwali sweets and cups of tea were in full flow. The media swooped on Prasada like vultures but the main challenger to Sonia spoke in riddles. The suspense continues — will he or won’t he contest against the claimant to the Nehru-Gandhi legacy?

Outside the AICC office, the loyalists erected enormous hoardings of the pantheon — Jawaharlal, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia. The cheerleaders milled around under a gigantic shamiana. Only the blare of warped music cassettes was missing.

The orchestration was a tired replay of every time. All Congress chief ministers, state unit presidents and legislature party leaders have been ordered to show up and propose Sonia’s name. The nominations for Sonia were beginning to pile up in the election office.

The numbers game was on in earnest. Who can get more proposers? Prasada camp followers claimed to have rustled up 160 nominations for the challenger. Yet Prasada continued to play coy. “How can I announce my candidature unless I see the voters’ list?” he insisted. “I will have to go through all the names before I decide whether to contest.”

The nuances seemed awfully irrelevant. They make sense only in the complicated jigsaw of a Congressman’s mind. Prasada’s challenge is symbolic, his camp explains. It dents Sonia’s claim to undisputed leadership.

Sonia loyalists say she is not frightened. But in a party like the Congress which thrives on palace politics, the leader’s authority must be unquestioned. Even one negative vote makes for a future nightmare. The chaos of the election process underlines the panic that Prasada has managed to generate.