Who is afraid of CWC elections?

Who is afraid of CWC elections?
Neerja Chowdhury

The Congress has once again decided to pack its working committee with nominated members. And strangely, party president Sonia Gandhi’s decision has the backing of most of the senior leaders. Neerja Chowdhury analyses the reasons behind the move.

Sonia Gandhi’s decision to nominate the new CWC is like saying ‘‘Aa baail mujhe maar’’ a clear invitation to trouble.

It may suit those who see no chance of winning but who stand some chance, slim or otherwise, of being nominated. They may not want to invite criticism of not having had the courage to contest.

AICC members in state after state have signed on the dotted line abdicating their right to elect the CWC members and authorising Sonia Gandhi to nominate members to the party’s apex decision making body. Those who have refused to toe the line are only a handful.

That the nomination route violates the party Constitution and is undemocratic goes without saying. Only the party’s plenary has the right to change the Constitution. But going beyond that technicality, the decision is neither good for the Congress nor Sonia herself. No election would ever be held if the argument against it is that it can be contentious and create bitterness. Nomination by the leader makes the AICC redundant.

On the face of it there was no compelling reason for Sonia Gandhi to agree to nominate all the 24 members instead of allowing 12 to be elected as is customary and invite the flak that is bound to follow. To begin with, Sonia was in favour of elections, if her confidantes are to be believed. The announcement by Ram Nivas Mirdha cancelling the AICC meet he had called on January 6-7 to elect the CWC has ended the ‘‘will she-won’t she’’ suspense.

If 24 aspirants make it to the party’s top group, ten times that number would be left out and feel disgruntled. This would not have been the case with an election. They would not have been in a position to lay the blame at her doorstep had they lost.

An election would have been a natural way of shedding the deadwood. Now she will find it very difficult to change the existing team. Many in the CWC are veterans even though they may not be in a position to win in a general election. If dropped from the CWC, they may well look for other political pastures.

It is not as if there is a threat to Sonia Gandhi’s leadership. What happened to Jitendra Prasada, who took her on in the presidential poll and did not reach a three digit tally, is signal enough for partymen.

Even if a handful of the oldies who are supposed to be dissidents had swung a victory though this time the mood in the party being what it is, people would have elected a Kamal Nath, a Suresh Kalmadi or even a Subbirami Reddy rather than some of the so called veterans there is no all India figurein the party who can pose a challenge to her.But a surprisingly large number of Congress leaders have favoured a nominated CWC this time, and they include Pranab Mukherji, A.K. Antony, Digvijay Singh, S.M. Krishna and Kamal Nath.

Arjun Singh and M.L. Fotedar have been backing the move from the beginning.Many in the party have put forth the number two theory, arguing that the emergence of a number two in the party, which a CWC election could lead to, could be problematic for Sonia later on. (It is ironic that both in the BJP and in the Congress there is a tussle for the number two position.)Normally, someone who polls the highest votes in a CWC election does not automatically get billed as the successor to the leader.

This did not happen when Ahmed Patel polled the highest votes in Calcutta. But in Tirupati, it had pressed panic buttons when Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar had formed a joint panel to poll a large number of votes.

Narasimha Rao had asked both of them to resign to make way for women and minorities and then brought them in the nominated category, which took away from the sheen of victory.

Today the importance of being a clearly defined number two could come in the event of the fall of the Vajpayee government, if it is caught in the VHP/Bajrang Dal-versus-the NDA allies dichotomy over the Ram temple.

Congressmen have argued that if the non-BJP parties agree to an alternative government led by the Congress, but not by Sonia, there would be enormous pressure from the party MPs on the leader to go in for such a government rather than face another election. And the natural leader other than Sonia to head such a government could be one who has been elected as ‘‘the number two’’ in the CWC poll, whether it is a Madhav Rao Scindia, or a Manmohan Singh, though the latter is not likely to contest as things stand, or someone else.

Whether it is the ‘‘number two’’ theory or fear of one or two or three known dissidents getting elected to the CWC, thereby signalling an erosion in her authority, the decision to nominate the CWC has shown that Sonia still lacks confidence. This is a pity since she has gone ahead with her courageous and a far reaching decision to give 33 per cent representation to women in the Congress Working Committee and also to OBCs, SC/STs and minorities.

The reservation for these categories had truncated the general quota seats to half, with 6 out of the 12 seats getting reserved for these categories, and triggered off a reaction in the party. One way to get around the problem was to become more, rather than less, democratic.

Sonia could left 12 seats open for elections and halved the number she is supposed to nominate.