Rift in Congress comes to the fore as party takes stock of failed rally

MUMBAI: The poor turnout at Sonia Gandhi’s Mumbai rally continues to create ripples within the state Congress. Following reports that Ms Gandhi’s Mumbai rally was a non-starter for the Congress, the party has began to take stock of the situation and undertake damage control exercises.

According to sources, the party high command is understood to have sought explanations from many local leaders for the poor attendance of party cadres at the rally.

“Every leader of worth any stature had promised to bring in at least 10,000 people for Ms Gandhi’s December 23 rally at Shivaji Park. If we believe them, there should have been a huge crowd of over 10 lakh people at the rally. But not even a lakh showed up,” a senior Congressman told ET.

The party is also disturbed over the reports of infighting. Though party insiders acknowledge that often party members tend to be loyal to individual leaders than to the party, they were surprised by the leadership’s failure to bring everybody together for the elections. “We expect all to unite to fight the elections. But in Mumbai, the election has in fact opened up differences,” he said.

Another leader attributed the situation to “new entrants” in the Congress. A number of Sena leaders, including former chief minister Narayan Rane and MP Sanjay Nirupam, have joined the party. “Some of them have been given important assignments, ignoring the loyalists.

This has been a major reason for the friction,” a Congressman said. He cited Ms Gandhi’s recent rally as an example where a newcomer like Narayan Rane was given prominence, while many veterans couldn’t even find a place on the dais.

At the Congress meeting held late Saturday evening, some senior members gave vent to their misgivings. According to reports, a senior functionary of the Mumbai Congress blamed these “new comers” for trying to undermine the present leadership’s authority. He made a veiled reference to former Sena leaders, without actually naming anyone in particular, sources said.

Amidst this infighting, another veteran Congressman, Union petroleum minister Murli Deora moved a resolution delegating all powers related to Mumbai elections to the city unit chief Gurudas Kamat.

The move raised many eyebrows since Mr Deora, a former city Congress chief himself, is a known Kamat baiter. Mr Kamat’s resolution was seconded by Rajiv Shukla, a novice in the city’s affairs. “This is the Congress way of passing the buck,” a Congressman said.