02-05-2007, 04:51 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Heads set to roll in Maharashtra Congress </b>
Pioneer.com
Yogesh Vajpeyi | New Delhi
Rattled by the Congress debacle in Maharashtra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has summoned Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra Congress chief Prabha Rau and other senior Congress leaders to Delhi.
"The Congress president is upset at reports that infighting among faction leaders and the role played by some of them in sabotaging an alliance with NCP contributed to the defeat. She fears this could have implications beyond the borders of Maharashtra unless something drastic is done," a senior AICC functionary said.
Congress sources indicated that some heads might roll as the Congress president has taken serious note of reports about some senior party leaders actively working against party candidates.
While Chief Minister Deshmukh and Maharashtra PCC chief Rau are likely to face most of the heat, several other senior leaders might also get the stick, sources said.
Apart from Deshmukh and Rau, others asked to come to Delhi for a post-mortem of what went wrong in the recently held civic elections are Mumbai Congress unit chief Gurudas Kamat, Pune strongman Suresh Kalmadi and Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane.
"Sonia Gandhi had made it clear to Deshmukh and the State party leaders that regaining control over the prestigious BMC, held by the saffron combine since more than a decade, was of vital importance and they should galvanise the party to achieve the objective," said a senior Maharashtra Congress leader.
<b>The Congress president had even addressed a huge rally at Shivaji Park in the last week of December and assured complete support of the AICC to the state unit, he pointed out</b>. <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo--> The Congress president has already held two rounds of discussions over what went wrong with her political secretary Ahmed Patel and AICC general secretary Margaret Alva, who is in-charge of the State.
A senior AICC functionary admitted that the results of civic elections in Maharashtra, particularly in Mumbai, proved that it was a big time goof up by the party.
The Congress high command is particularly peeved at the way Union Minister Vilas Muthewar and State Minister Suresh Chaturvedi openly worked against each other in Nagpur.
"This is unacceptabe, they will have to pay for it," said an AICC general secretary.
He admitted that the Maharashtra results had dampened the euphoria generated in the leadership by recent surveys which claimed that the party could come to power on its own in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking in Mumbai, <b>Revenue Minister Narayan Rane alleged that, "Internal grievances and lack of planning has resulted in the downfall of the Congress in the State even though it was constantly rising in the past 18 months."</b> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Rane was also critical of the successful opposition to the Congress-NCP alliance by some influential Congress leaders.
<b>" The party actually donated BMC to Shiv Sena by offering the city on a platter. I think that the party made a huge political blunder and miscalculation by not tying up with the NCP,"</b> he added
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Time had come to remove Congress President, even after a huge rally, they lost BMC. Head should roll and it should start from top. Only problem with COngress, only die-nasty rules or dictator rules, no democracy.
Pioneer.com
Yogesh Vajpeyi | New Delhi
Rattled by the Congress debacle in Maharashtra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has summoned Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra Congress chief Prabha Rau and other senior Congress leaders to Delhi.
"The Congress president is upset at reports that infighting among faction leaders and the role played by some of them in sabotaging an alliance with NCP contributed to the defeat. She fears this could have implications beyond the borders of Maharashtra unless something drastic is done," a senior AICC functionary said.
Congress sources indicated that some heads might roll as the Congress president has taken serious note of reports about some senior party leaders actively working against party candidates.
While Chief Minister Deshmukh and Maharashtra PCC chief Rau are likely to face most of the heat, several other senior leaders might also get the stick, sources said.
Apart from Deshmukh and Rau, others asked to come to Delhi for a post-mortem of what went wrong in the recently held civic elections are Mumbai Congress unit chief Gurudas Kamat, Pune strongman Suresh Kalmadi and Maharashtra Revenue Minister Narayan Rane.
"Sonia Gandhi had made it clear to Deshmukh and the State party leaders that regaining control over the prestigious BMC, held by the saffron combine since more than a decade, was of vital importance and they should galvanise the party to achieve the objective," said a senior Maharashtra Congress leader.
<b>The Congress president had even addressed a huge rally at Shivaji Park in the last week of December and assured complete support of the AICC to the state unit, he pointed out</b>. <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo--> The Congress president has already held two rounds of discussions over what went wrong with her political secretary Ahmed Patel and AICC general secretary Margaret Alva, who is in-charge of the State.
A senior AICC functionary admitted that the results of civic elections in Maharashtra, particularly in Mumbai, proved that it was a big time goof up by the party.
The Congress high command is particularly peeved at the way Union Minister Vilas Muthewar and State Minister Suresh Chaturvedi openly worked against each other in Nagpur.
"This is unacceptabe, they will have to pay for it," said an AICC general secretary.
He admitted that the Maharashtra results had dampened the euphoria generated in the leadership by recent surveys which claimed that the party could come to power on its own in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking in Mumbai, <b>Revenue Minister Narayan Rane alleged that, "Internal grievances and lack of planning has resulted in the downfall of the Congress in the State even though it was constantly rising in the past 18 months."</b> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Rane was also critical of the successful opposition to the Congress-NCP alliance by some influential Congress leaders.
<b>" The party actually donated BMC to Shiv Sena by offering the city on a platter. I think that the party made a huge political blunder and miscalculation by not tying up with the NCP,"</b> he added
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Time had come to remove Congress President, even after a huge rally, they lost BMC. Head should roll and it should start from top. Only problem with COngress, only die-nasty rules or dictator rules, no democracy.