Congress Darshan gaffe bares factional feud, Sanjay Nirupam in line of fire

MUMBAI: Even as state Congress chief Ashok Chavan and leader of the opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil reacted cautiously after articles critical of Jawaharlal Nehru and Sonia Gandhi were published in the party's mouthpiece, 'Congress Darshan', the gaffe has exposed factionalism in the city unit.'Now, pressure is mounting on Congress president Sonia Gandhi to sack Mumbai unit chief Sanjay Nirupam for the goof-up.

Nirupam has accepted the responsibility for the fiasco. A former minister said if Nirupam did not quit on his own, Sonia should sack him immediately . "Nirupam says that he has sacked the content editor, Sudhir Joshi," he said. "In our opinion it is an eyewash, since his name does not appear anywhere in the entire magazine. Nirupam must stop misleading the Congress high command and quit in the party's larger interest."

He said the party high command had taken note of the state of affairs in the Mumbai Congress, particu larly of the manner in which the magazine was published "It was unfortunate that Ni rupam did not see the con tents before it was publish ed," the former minister said. "It has caused a mas sive damage to the Congress and has given ammunition to the BJP," he added.

A senior Congress functionary said following Nirupam's appointment, the Congress high command was expecting that factionalism within the organisation would come to an end, but it now appeared it had as sumed new dimensions."There are four to five groups within the city unit and they are undermining each other," he said. "If the high command fails to deal with these factions ruthlessly, it will be difficult for the party to contest the BMC polls."