×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Leaked documents put Sonia, Rahul in a tangle

Last Updated 17 December 2010, 19:05 IST

The latest leaks have virtually cast a shadow on the three-day Congress plenary session starting with the AICC steering committee on Saturday. As it did on Friday, the Congress will over the next three days defend its leaders but, undoubtedly, the party summit will start on a grim note. Thus, one after the other, the Congress is getting battered ever since its victory in 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Already burdened with defending the party against mounting evidence in the Commonwealth Games scam, 2G spectrum scandal and Adarsh housing (meant for Kargil heroes) controversy, the Congress will now be called upon to defend what it has already called a conspiracy.

As leaders fly down to the Union capital and live under tents pitched at Burari on the outskirts of Delhi, the party will have to think over the crushing defeat that it faced in Bihar, returning just four seats out of 243 in the Assembly elections which saw the alliance of the Janata Dal-United and Bharatiya Janata Party romping home with a resounding victory.

The political situation in different states is none too encouraging for the Congress. A stark reality is Andhra Pradesh where it was forced to change its chief minister just a month ago. The party will now have to grapple with a rebellious Jagan Mohan Reddy (son of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy) who is expected to start a new party shortly.

In Maharashtra, too, the Congress forced out its chief minister following the Adarsh scam. Apart from this, an uneasy relationship with the coalition partner Nationalist Congress Party has made the Congress position a little too shaky.

While it fights off the 2G scam—perhaps the biggest to hit a government after Bofors—the Congress is riding another easy tie-up with the DMK in Tamil Nadu. Luckily for the Congress, the DMK government depends on the national party for support.

Following the Bihar experiment, the party may have to explain its stand on going it alone in different states. The party was riding high after an impressive tally in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2009, when it fought the poll alone. But the result in Bihar has changed the mood in the party. It is in no position to fight alone either in Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, both of which are going to the polls in April-May 2011.

At Burari, the party will pass three resolutions. The political resolution has been prepared by a team led by Defence Minister A K Antony, economic resolution by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and international relations by, not External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, but by Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 17 December 2010, 19:05 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT