Sonia's party all the way in PCCs' show of loyalty

Sonia's party all the way in PCCs' show of loyalty
SANJIV SINHA

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 12: A massive stage-managed exercise came to an end today as the Congress party went to polls to ``elect'' its new chief from among two contestants -- Sonia Gandhi and Jitendra Prasada. At the end of the day, it was more than apparent that the polling had been on expected lines with an overwhelming majority of the PCC delegates, who form the electoral college, casting their vote for Sonia.

While the election was to be held through secret ballot, PCC chiefs and Sonia loyalists stationed at polling stations in various state capitals were by late evening already reporting to the AICC headquarters here that ``everything had gone smoothly''.

With the result never having been in doubt, the real contest among Sonia loyalists was to ensure that not a single vote went the other way in their states. At the AICC headquarters here, the talking point among Sonia's supporters was not the poll outcome but the number of votes Sonia's challenger would get.

Barring a lathi-charge by the local police on some Prasada supporters at the PCC headquarters in Lucknow and a scuffle among rival partymen in Chennai, the polling which took place at 36 places all over the country, including all state capitals and Union Territories was, largely, peaceful.

Sonia and Prasada cast their vote in Lucknow amidst heavy jostling and slogan-shouting.

In Delhi, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Gandhi family loyalist and party MP Satish Sharma led the loyalty-to-Sonia exhibition by publicly displaying who their candidate was and making a farce of the much-hyped secret ballot. In other states, PCC chiefs and Sonia loyalists made sure the flock of PCC delegates ``stayed together'' by instructing them in advance about what they were required to do.

The fact that each PCC delegate was given a ballot number -- his vote can always be cross-checked later -- was another crucial inhibiting factor for those who may have had thought of going with Prasada since no one wants to be a victim of the witch-hunt which could follow.

For example, soon after the voting ended in Tripura, which has around 67 delegates, all the factions of the state unit announced in Agartala that they had cast their votes in favour of Sonia.

Sonia's political managers hit upon another novel idea for ensuring total support for her. In Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Digvijay Singh managed the show for his party boss by deftly moving a resolution before the start of voting in Bhopal, authorising her to nominate the new PCC chief. The resolution, seconded by Madhavrao Scindia, Kamal Nath and Arjun Singh, was passed unanimously, thereby committing all the PCC delegates to vote for and support Sonia.

Similar authorisations for Sonia to nominate the PCC chiefs for their states came from Karnataka and Maharashtra, making a mockery of the party president's elections, since she is yet to be declared elected officially. Some states such as Orissa, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana have already passed such unanimous resolutions, making clear where their loyalties lie.

Speaking to reporters today, the party's election chief, Ram Niwas Mirdha, said there had been over 95 per cent voting in almost all the states and UTs, except for Kerala and Assam where elections have been postponed. He admitted ``certain irregularities'' had taken place but these would be looked into only after the counting for the party president's election, scheduled for November 15, is over. He said he would inquire into Delhi Chief Minister and Satish Sharma making their votes public.

``We have received complaints and reports from several states with regard to irregularities in the PCC lists. We will study it properly and do justice to those partymen who worked hard in the membership drive but were denied voting rights,'' Mirdha said.