Column

Meanwhile in Delhi

They say Sonia Gandhi has removed only two chief ministers during her years as Congress president. One was J B Patnaik in Orissa, after the gruesome Graham Staines murder.

The other was Vilasrao Deshmukh. Congress circles in Delhi, confident that history will be repeated, have started the countdown to Deshmukh’s exit. His enemies seem to be pressing the right buttons with Sonia.

Listen to the whispers reaching 10 Janpath: the NCP swept the recent municipal elections in both Navi Mumbai and Kalyan Dombivili; the Congress had an alliance with the NCP but Sharad Pawar put up rival candidates; the CM didn’t stir out of his house to campaign in either place.

The Pawar factor got Deshmukh out the last time. Has it returned to haunt him again? The man who’s itching to replace him, Narayan Rane, is playing his cards well. He came to Delhi to greet Sonia after his famous victory in the bye-elections.

He stayed to position himself as a Pawar-slayer, with promises of luring MLAs from the Shiv Sena to give the Congress more numbers than the NCP in the assembly. It’s pure temptation for Sonia. They say that despite the Congress alliance with the NCP, she hasn’t forgiven Pawar for making her foreign origin an election issue in 1999.

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But for Sonia, Priya Dutt may not have made it to the Lok Sabha. Five of the six Congress MLAs from her northwest Mumbai parliamentary constituency had travelled to Delhi shortly before the nomination was announced to lobby against Priya. All five had fought bitterly with Sunil Dutt before he died and were not on speaking terms with him or his family.

They threatened not to work for Priya. But what probably ruined their case was the way they tried to make an issue of her advanced pregnancy. She won’t be able to campaign properly, they told Sonia.

Apart from the Gandhi family’s warm regard for the Dutts, Sonia is a women’s libber in her own way and was apparently quite put off by the MLAs’ remarks. She put her foot down, made Gurudas Kamat personally in-charge of Priya’s campaign and told the five MLAs to go home.

Kamat had the difficult task of restoring peace in northwest Mumbai. He seems to have succeeded because eventually, all five MLAs turned out and Priya posted heavy leads in every one of the six assembly segments. And brave girl that she is, she was there for the last seven days of campaign, despite having delivered a baby by ceasarian section just one week before.
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Maharashtra seems to be impinging on the Congress “high command” in a big way these days. AICC general secretary Margret Alva is said to be making a strong pitch for the post of Maharashtra governor.

The present incumbent, S M Krishna, has apparently given an ultimatum to his bosses here in Delhi that he will not stay on in the Mumbai Raj Bhavan after December.

With fellow Mangalorean Oscar Fernandes due to return to party work in the upcoming reshuffle, Alva seems to be looking for a soft landing as a prelude to retirement and what better post than the glamour-filled job as the governor of India’s most prosperous state? Besides, the job comes with a lovely and grand house!

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net