03-28-2005, 12:52 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mess in UP & Bihar: Cong answer is Rahul & struggle
Sanjay K Jha/ New Delhi
Worried about the party's inability in regaining the lost ground in vital states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the Congress leadership is working on a multi-dimensional strategy. While it plans to bolster the leadership front by bringing Rahul Gandhi as AICC general secretary, the party has devised a twin strategy of Gandhian agitation and Nehruvian development to impress all sections of the society in these states.
Sources in the party reveal there is a strong chance of Rahul Gandhi being made general secretary in the next organisational reshuffle, which according to senior leaders, will not only widen the extent of his political activity but also solve the leadership crisis in the Hindi heartland. Through his activities in Amethi, Rahul has already established himself as a modern, forward-looking politician committed to development and his induction in Sonia Gandhi's team will also be used to woo the middle class and the forward castes in the entire country.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has been organising issue-based agitations and is trying to project itself as the real Opposition party. While Rahul Gandhi's presence is a big attraction for the forward castes, through Salman Khurshid as PCC president, it is trying to break the Samajwadi Party's Muslim votebank. To win over the Dalits and the downtrodden, it is trying to project its welfare programmes being carried out by the Central Government.
The Congress also organised a huge Dalit panchayat in Lucknow, where former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's Bhopal declaration was presented as a model programme for their uplift. Though after Mr Singh's defeat, the Congress appeared to have forgotten the Bhopal declaration, there are leaders in the party who treat the document as an incredible work.
At a time when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is holding Brahmin sammelans, the Congress has kept focus on the poor and the Dalits, talking about reservations, land allotments, and other welfare schemes. The party has also been talking of developing small sub-urban centres into cities by giving a strong commercial push through developmental schemes.
The party has also used Rahul Gandhi to woo the younger generation by holding youth camps and taking up issues dear to them. Apart from proper caste mobilisation, if the party succeeds in triggering small movements at block and district levels on livelihood issues, the party feels it would be able make a solid support base in a year's time.
In Bihar, the party is entirely clueless about its next move, but one directive that has gone to Governor Buta Singh is that the law and order situation should be improved. Senior leaders believe the Bihar's society will be grateful to the Congress if any degree of success is achieved on that front and on that goodwill the party can try to build up its political agenda.
There is also speculation about the change of PCC leadership. Sources in the party say Mr Ramjatan Sinha himself wanted to put in his papers owning moral responsibility for the humiliating defeat in the State. Sources said, he kept trying in vain for an appointment with Ms Sonia Gandhi for a week. Ms Gandhi probably did't meet him as there is no plan of action for Bihar as yet.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sanjay K Jha/ New Delhi
Worried about the party's inability in regaining the lost ground in vital states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the Congress leadership is working on a multi-dimensional strategy. While it plans to bolster the leadership front by bringing Rahul Gandhi as AICC general secretary, the party has devised a twin strategy of Gandhian agitation and Nehruvian development to impress all sections of the society in these states.
Sources in the party reveal there is a strong chance of Rahul Gandhi being made general secretary in the next organisational reshuffle, which according to senior leaders, will not only widen the extent of his political activity but also solve the leadership crisis in the Hindi heartland. Through his activities in Amethi, Rahul has already established himself as a modern, forward-looking politician committed to development and his induction in Sonia Gandhi's team will also be used to woo the middle class and the forward castes in the entire country.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has been organising issue-based agitations and is trying to project itself as the real Opposition party. While Rahul Gandhi's presence is a big attraction for the forward castes, through Salman Khurshid as PCC president, it is trying to break the Samajwadi Party's Muslim votebank. To win over the Dalits and the downtrodden, it is trying to project its welfare programmes being carried out by the Central Government.
The Congress also organised a huge Dalit panchayat in Lucknow, where former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's Bhopal declaration was presented as a model programme for their uplift. Though after Mr Singh's defeat, the Congress appeared to have forgotten the Bhopal declaration, there are leaders in the party who treat the document as an incredible work.
At a time when the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is holding Brahmin sammelans, the Congress has kept focus on the poor and the Dalits, talking about reservations, land allotments, and other welfare schemes. The party has also been talking of developing small sub-urban centres into cities by giving a strong commercial push through developmental schemes.
The party has also used Rahul Gandhi to woo the younger generation by holding youth camps and taking up issues dear to them. Apart from proper caste mobilisation, if the party succeeds in triggering small movements at block and district levels on livelihood issues, the party feels it would be able make a solid support base in a year's time.
In Bihar, the party is entirely clueless about its next move, but one directive that has gone to Governor Buta Singh is that the law and order situation should be improved. Senior leaders believe the Bihar's society will be grateful to the Congress if any degree of success is achieved on that front and on that goodwill the party can try to build up its political agenda.
There is also speculation about the change of PCC leadership. Sources in the party say Mr Ramjatan Sinha himself wanted to put in his papers owning moral responsibility for the humiliating defeat in the State. Sources said, he kept trying in vain for an appointment with Ms Sonia Gandhi for a week. Ms Gandhi probably did't meet him as there is no plan of action for Bihar as yet.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->