NEW DELHI, 5 July 2005 — The Congress party has finally decided to field Priya Dutt, daughter of late union minister for sports, Sunil Dutt from the Northwest parliamentary seat in Bombay, which felt vacant after her father’s death in May this year.
Priya, who was here to meet party president, Sonia Gandhi, however, refrained from making any comments. But she assured that she would try to fulfill the promises of her father to the people of his constituency.
Sanjay Nirupam, who recently joined the Congress after deserting the Shiv Sena was also one of the aspirants to the seat. Nirupam, last time contested unsuccesfully against late Sunil Dutt.
“She would surely win because her father has done so much work in his constituency,” said a senior Congress leader close to Dutt’s family.
Priya’s candidature has ended a month-long speculation on Sunil Dutt’s successor. While she has accompanied Dutt senior on many campaigns and rallies, critics, however, say she does not have enough experience in mainstream politics.
There was also speculation about her brother and well known actor Sanjay Dutt contesting the seat.
Apparaently Sanjay has decided to continue his successful film career, leaving the political arena for his sister.
In another significant development, BJP President L.K. Advani, who was initially reluctant to remove his political secretary Sudheendra Kulkarni, finally gave in.
Kulkarni, late on Sunday evening finally announced his resignation from the party post which was later accepted by the high command.
Though Kulkarni denied that he acted under any pressure, it was known that the Sangh Parivar blamed Kulkarni for the controversy surrounding Advani’s comments on Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
The Sangh Parivar allegedly asked the party president to removed Kulkarni to end the impasse.
During the six years of NDA rule, it was Kulkarni who played the role of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s image manager. Sources say that Kulkarni wanted to make a Vajpayee out of Advani.
He always made sure that the RSS was kept at an arm’s length. But in Advani’s case, the formula backfired. With Kulkarni’s resignation it has been proven once again that when it comes to the crunch, it is the RSS that calls the shots within the Sangh Parivar.
Many in the RSS are just looking at Kulkarni’s removal as the first step. Their real target is Advani and many RSS officials say that he will have to go by the time the Bihar elections are over.
Advani will now be hoping that a good performance in Bihar elections combined with the divisions within the second rung leadership of the party will enable him to carry on in his position for some more time.
