Congress flustered by Anna Hazare’s new challenge

The Congress is flustered by Anna Hazare’s move to oppose it in the elections — first in the Hissar bypoll and then in Uttar Pradesh next year.

Though the party has given a guarded response, the office-bearers are accusing Hazare of showing his true colours and doubting the government’s intentions with regard to the Lokpal bill.

However, the party people are not too sure if Hazare’s entry in politics will affect the Congress’s electoral prospects. They claim Hazare will only be moving into the opposition space, which is now occupied by the BJP. “He is appealing to the BJP constituency,” Congress general secretary Hari Prasad said and asked: “Why didn’t Hazare field a candidate in Hissar if he had wanted to challenge the Congress?”

Prasad, who is in charge of the party affairs in Haryana, feels that if Hazare makes a formal entry into politics, it would be better for the Congress in the long term, though the Gandhian could taste some success in the short term.

Congress members sense the public mood and feel the party will have to pay a price. But they think they will regain ground after an early loss.

Many Congress workers are, however, angry with Hazare’s move. They say his announcement is politically motivated and it confirms their worse fears about him —  that he and his associates are nursing political ambition under a crusader’s garb. And more importantly, they are more anti-Congress than anti-corruption.

However, the mood among the party workers is quite different. “Hazare is a mediocre man. There is no doubt about it. But he has become an icon of the middle class youth,” an angry party worker said. He said it would be better if the Congress-led UPA government falls immediately because the longer it stays in power the more the skeletons that will tumble out of the cupboards. The argument is that if the party gets out of office, the damage done by its corrupt ministers will be checked.