Congress President election: Who will hold the fort after Sonia Gandhi?

As calls for publication of electoral rolls gain ground, it remains to be seen who enters the fray

In theory, the red-letter day in the Congress’s recent history will be October 17, when an election (if required) will be held to choose a new president of the party.

But there is another date that is even more crucial. Those who want to fight for the top job in the party have until October 8 to withdraw their names from the list of candidates.

All that remains to be seen is whether anyone of those left in the Group of 23 -- who wanted elections to all bodies in the Congress to be held prior to the election of the party president -- will throw his hat into the ring. Two of the prime movers of the G23 have already left the Congress – Kapil Sibal, former Union law minister and now Samajwadi Party-backed Rajya Sabha MP and Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Union health minister, who recently resigned from the party after a bitter five-page letter to its top leadership, alleging a massive fudging of party electoral rolls.

Another member of G23, Anand Sharma, who resigned from the party steering committee in his home state of Himachal Pradesh, is likely to be placated and persuaded to stay in the Congress. Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, senior Himachal Congressman and chairman of the campaign committee, said: “He (Sharma) had some grievances that he cited in a letter to the party high command. The leadership is considering his letter. I’m sure some amicable solution will be found.” To a question about whether it even mattered whether Sharma stayed with the party or left it, Sukhu said: “It matters. Every worker’s exit from the party matters. It is not just an electoral issue. It hurts the spirit of the party.”

And as top leaders in the party exit it in droves, there is no clarity on how many will be left behind to hold the fort and steer the organisation.

Last time the Congress faced a crisis of this magnitude was in 1996. The P V Narasimha Rao government had been voted out of power. Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination had left a vacuum in the leadership of the party. Sonia Gandhi had resisted pressure from Rao malcontents -- Arjun Singh, Sheila Dikshit and others -- to take up the leadership. Sitaram Kesri was installed as Congress president.

But in the winter of 1997, Sonia Gandhi changed her mind. She joined the party in December 1997 at its plenary session in then Calcutta, announcing she would campaign for the party in the Lok Sabha election then due in March 1998. She addressed her first election rally in Tamil Nadu, the state where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. In the coming months, Kesri tolerated Gandhi’s influence, even welcoming it publicly. But then the Congress Working Committee (CWC) passed a resolution on March 14, 1998, asking Kesri to step down as party president. No election came in the way of the elevation of Sonia Gandhi. However, she neither turned away from the challenge, nor avoided responsibility.

But her elevation was challenged from the get-go. In 1999, many senior party members, including Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar, said Gandhi’s Italian descent was a problem. The rebel leaders were expelled and they formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and in their absence, the baton was passed on to Rajesh Pilot and Jitendra Prasada.

Soon after their campaign, challenging Sonia's leadership, began, Pilot (55) died in a car crash. But Prasada, 62 at that time, went ahead with his battle.

When polls were held in November 2000 to elect the next party president, Prasada was trounced. Of 7,542 votes, he received only 94. He died in 2001, but claimed that the election had been fixed from the start.

This is exactly what Ghulam Nabi Azad now has said in his letter. “Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC have been coerced to sign lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC, sitting at 24 Akbar Road. At no place in a booth, block, district, or state was an electoral roll published, nominations invited, scrutinised, polling booths set up, and elections held. The AICC leadership is squarely responsible for perpetrating a giant fraud on the party to perpetuate its hold on the ruins of what once was a national movement that fought for and attained the Independence of India,” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Prithviraj Chavan, who is also a prominent G23 member, says the election is welcome. “Two years ago, we had written to the Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) seeking internal democracy. Hence, we welcome this decision. Internal democracy is a sign of liveliness within the party. The party has been facing a string of defeats. Due to lack of internal polls, nominated office bearers at all levels have been taking decisions.”

The question is: Will an election be held at all?

October 8 will bring the answer.