With its leaders holding divergent views on Salwa Judum, the state Congress party is in a fix over what stand to take on the controversial anti-Naxalite movement of Bastar during its campaign for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and his supporters have been pressing since long for the party’s total disassociation with the present form of Salwa Judum, pointing out that the movement has resulted in killing of innocent tribals and large-scale displacement, badly affecting the socio-economic conditions of South Bastar region in the past three years.

However, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Mahendra Karma, who represents the Naxalite-infested Dantewada, is in the forefront of Salwa Judum movement, which began in June 2005 to motivate the people to keep themselves aloof from the rebels and to isolate the Naxalites in the region.

The BJP Government also extended its tacit support to the Salwa Judum, terming it as a spontaneous movement by the local tribals against more than three decades old problem of violence and bloodshed in Bastar.

With both Jogi and Karma sticking to their guns, the Congress is facing a predicament over whom to go with in the next elections, scheduled for November this year.

Jogi and many legislators feel that supporting Salwa Judum, in its present form, would be against the larger interests of tribals, while the Karma faction wants the party to pledge its continued support, arguing that the movement per se was against Naxalism. The issue figured at the state Congress Coordination Committee meeting, which discussed the poll strategy for the next Assembly elections here on Tuesday, but the leaders could not arrive at a consensus. As many views emerged at the meeting, it was decided that AICC general secretary V Narayanasamy, in-charge of state party affairs, would discuss the matter with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

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