SRINAGAR, MAY 5: Jolting his own party in the run-up to the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Congress MP from Jammu-Rajouri Madan Lal Sharma has alleged that two senior state party leaders, including Assembly Speaker Tara Chand, escaped arrest in the Srinagar sex scandal probe “only because of the intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad”.

Sharma made these allegations at Sunday’s public rally in Akhnoor. Though today he was disowning his own remarks, he told the gathering in Akhnoor that “he (Sharma) fell at the feet of Sonia Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad” and “saved Tara Chand and (then Pradesh Congress Committee chief) Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed” from arrest. He even said these leaders should have been behind bars like Pappu Yadav.

With the BJP demanding his resignation for “shielding” Congress leaders, Azad declined comment on the charges, dismissing them as “frivolous”. A rattled Azad also convened a meeting of senior party colleagues to discuss damage control measures, while Sonia has summoned Sharma to Delhi.

Allegations about the involvement of senior politicians in the sex scandal did the rounds of Srinagar in the initial days of the probe. In fact, the name of a state minister came up during the proceedings in the court.

Sharma’s allegations are being seen in the light of the internal politics of the state Congress. A party stalwart from Jammu, Sharma became MP after he was elbowed out of the coalition cabinet. He also left his Assembly constituency in Jammu where the Congress fielded his brother. This slowly took Sharma away from the centrestage of state politics.

Tara Chand, who was elected from a neighbouring constituency, became Speaker of the Legislative Assembly — he emerged as a new power centre in the area. Once close, Sharma and Tara Chand began drifting apart, competing for the Congress leadership and influence in the area.

Reacting to Sharma’s charge, the Speaker said on Monday: “I am hurt that some top guns in the state are trying to conspire against me... everybody in my constituency and outside knows my image.”

Sharma’s outburst about his own party colleagues has also put the Congress in a spot. At the political level in Jammu, the Congress’s arch rivals BJP as well as the National Conference will try to make the most of these allegations. And in the Valley, this will create problems for both the Congress and PDP, as here many suspect that the probe was never exhaustive and that the more high profile were shielded.