Divided alliance

Consider just the last four days:

On December 31,the party’s pointsman for Andhra Pradesh,M Veerappa Moily,called up Congress MPs from Telangana asking them not to speak on the Srikrishna Committee report until the party takes a view. But the party is still undecided,its MPs confused. If this wasn’t enough,though Moily remains in charge,it’s Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who is holding consultations with state leaders,.

On January 2,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed reservations about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer to present himself before the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G spectrum allocation. The Congress may have dismissed suggestions of disagreement but it is clearly divided: many MPs are said to have conveyed that the refusal to accept a JPC probe isn’t playing out well in public perception of the government.

On January 2,Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi failed to receive the Prime Minister at Chennai airport. Both leaders denied any rift between the two parties but neither camp is convinced.

On January 3,the Congress’s Digvijaya Singh wrote to Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil (NCP) demanding a public apology for questioning his claim that Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare had called him shortly before he was killed on 26/11 to say he faced a threat to his life due to the Malegaon blast probe. the same day,the BJP attacked the Congress on an Income Tax Appellate Tribunal order about Ottavio Quattrocchi and Win Chadha getting kickbacks from the Bofors deal. The Congress said it has nothing to do with these individuals; all that mattered was the honour of Rajiv Gandhi and the party.

It isn’t Rajiv’s legacy that’s troubling party managers. “We seem to be in a crisis all the time,” said one. “We fight off one,another one erupts: Commonwealth Games,Adarsh,2G,Parliament deadlock….” Common to all,they said,is the absence of a clear voice from the leadership (read Sonia Gandhi). It took over three weeks of mudslinging on the Games before Sonia’s first comments; Obama provided the party the cover with Adarsh and Ashok Chavan; on 2G and A Raja,she took a week before defending the Prime Minister and that,too,when the Supreme Court had commented on him and the BJP had targeted him.

In this silence,senior leaders have spoken in different voices. Dissenter-in-chief Digvijaya Singh took on Home Minister P Chidambaram on the government’s anti-Naxal policy while senior leader K Keshava Rao stalled Kapil Sibal’s Education Tribunal Bill.

Singh,given a key role to lead the attack on the RSS for its leaders’ alleged involvement in terror attacks,has visited Azamgarh to meet the families of those arrested in terror cases,apart from going public about Karkare’s call. Despite reservations in the party,Sonia Gandhi put Singh in charge of poll-bound Assam,which has a significant minority population. He is believed to have the backing of Rahul Gandhi who has told the US Ambassador (reported by Wikileaks) that radical Hindu groups posed a bigger threat than the Lashkar-e-Toiba.

“Nobody is sure about his or her position in the next set-up under Rahul; everybody is positioning himself. For many veteran leaders,it’s a last shot at realising their dreams,” said a Congress minister. “We are in power in 11 states and UTs but inspire hope only in Assam,Delhi,Haryana. In other states,our hopes are limited to Punjab and Kerala. Where is the light?” said a senior leader. For the party’s future,Rahul,Bihar came as a reality check,the party losing its deposit in 221 of the 243 seats.

Congress vs partners

DMK: The sacking of A Raja as Telecom Minister and the controversy over Karunanidhi’s delayed meeting with the Prime Minister have exposed cracks in the alliance. The DMK does not seem to have reconciled to Raja’s exit and the Congress has sent conflicting signals. Rahul avoided meeting Karunanidhi during his frequent visits,even as the Congress is exploring if it can go it alone in the Assembly polls.

NCP: Problems started with the NCP projecting Sharad Pawar as a PM-candidate in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections,but the Congress fared better and repeated the performance in the Assembly elections in Maharashtra. Since then,the partners have been squabbling over the number of ministries and key infrastructure projects in Mumbai,with NCP ministers accusing then Congress Chief Minister Ashok Chavan of withholding approvals to their proposals. Now,after Chavan’s exit and the entry of Pawar’s nephew Ajit as Deputy Chief Minister,NCP leaders feel the Congress is trying once again to push the party into submission. They point to the Lavasa controversy and the LIC housing loan scandal that has named some firms said to be close to the NCP,besides attempts to blame Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel for the condition Air India finds itself in,and Pawar for rising prices.

NC: In Jammu & Kashmir,Congress and National Conference leaders have been at loggerheads. While state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz was learnt to have complained to the high command against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s “high-handedness” and managed to stonewall many government initiatives,state Congress leaders have gone public about revisiting the power-sharing formula.

TMC: In West Bengal,the Congress and the Trinamool Congress are bound by their common cause against the Left but hardly a day goes by without leaders of both partners exchanging barbs. At the Congress plenary,Deepa Dasmunshi hit out at TMC chief Mamata Banerjee for criticising the UPA government on various issues.

The best antidote,say Congress leaders,is a win in the Assembly elections in Assam,West Bengal,and Kerala. But those elections are three months away,a very long time in politics.

(Inputs from ENS,Mumbai)