NEW DELHI, 14 June — Political strategy of the Congress party for Uttar Pradesh (UP) Assembly polls has begun taking shape with reconstitution of the party’s state committee. The jumbo-sized UP Congress committee includes 22 vice presidents, 31 general secretaries, 45 secretaries, 21 permanent and 87 special invitees. The heavyweights are Salman Khurshid, N.D. Tiwari, M.L. Fotedar, Mohsina Kidwai and Satish Sharma. S.P. Jaiswal will continue as the committees president.
None of the office bearers would be candidates for the coming elections. This according to Ghulam Nabi Azad, in charge of UP, would help the office-bearers focus their energies on helping the party candidates win instead of cornering tickets themselves.
Strangely, composition of the state Congress has exposed a certain laxity on part of the party officials. Some of the 236 members in the state Congress are the ones who have crossed over to other parties.
As for instance, the list of “special invitees/associate members” includes the names of MLAs S.G. Lodhi and Qasim Hasan, who are now members of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). K.P. Rawat, S.A. Khan and Obaidur Rahman’s names have been included despite their having joined the Samajwadi Party.
Names of P.S. Bundela and Puttu Awadh are also mentioned in the Congress list though they have joined the Bharatiay Janata Party (BJP). The Congress media cell has justified the inclusion of such names, as these members “have given a requisition to return to the party.”
However, some of the Congress functionaries are critical of such “lackadaisical” approach of the Congress high command. According to a Congress member, “If this is the beginning for the assembly elections, you can well imagine the end.”
As far as its electoral agenda is concerned, the party will focus on farmers problems, the backlog in filling schedule caste/ schedule tribes vacancies and the UP government’s refusal to issue a fresh notification in the Babri Mosque demolition case. The Congress has begun active campaign by attacking Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav’s “intriguing silence” on the Ayodhya notification issue. The state Congress spokesman Akhilesh Singh said on Sunday, “The Congress President Sonia Gandhi has sent a letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee asking him to direct the UP government to immediately issue a fresh notification and enable trial of the accused. If no action is taken within a week, Congress will start an agitation to mount pressure on the BJP.
Mulayam Yadav and his party leaders are strangely silent over the issue, while they spare no opportunity to hit out at the Congress chief. It is apparent that Yadav is hand-in-glove with communal forces and is keen to destabilize the secular forces led by the Congress.”
On its part, the Samajwadi Party plans a statewide agitation on Ayodhya issue on July 9. The Left is aligned with it.
The BJP will finalize its strategy for UP polls when the state executive committee meets in Saharanpur on June 15 and 16. Sources indicate that BJP is not in favor of the state government issuing fresh notifications to L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi and Uma Bharati related to the Ayodhya case. Notification would lead to their formal charge-sheeting and demand for their resignation from the Union Cabinet. The UP Chief Minister Rajnath Singh has ruled out issuance of fresh notification to enable trial of the three ministers.
The political scenario in UP suggests that it is likely to be strongly haunted by the Ayodhya-ghost in the coming assembly polls.
