Factionalism to the fore in Chandigarh Congress unit

By Rajesh Ahuja

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 29. Factionalism in the Chandigarh unit of the Congress(I) reared its head again when the State Election Authority Chairman, Mr. Harikesh Bahadur, visited the city beautiful today to inspect and scrutinise the recent membership drive in the party.

While supporters of the former Union Minister and former CTCC chief, Mr. Venod Sharma, submitted a memorandum to Mr. Bahadur alleging bogus membership and non-publication of lists of primary and active members, Mr. Harmohan Dhawan, a former Union Minister, had heated exchanges with the CTCC president, Mr. B. B. Bahl.

According to Mr. Sunil Parti, CTCC, general secretary the memorandum has been signed among others by Mrs. Manjit Kaur and Mr. Gurcharan Dass Kala, Vice-Presidents, Mr. Bhupinder Singh, secretary, Mr. Chandermukhi Sharma, president of the Chandigarh unit of the Congress, Mr. Prabhu Dayal and Mr. P. C. Puri, both District Presidents.

While alleging that the CTCC President was ``acting in a partisan manner', the memorandum pointed out several anomalies regarding date and time of depositing the membership forms had come to light. Norms set by the AICC had been flouted to enroll bogus members.

Mr. Dhawan and Mr. Bahl had `heated exchanges' during the course of the meeting presided over by Mr. Bahadur Mr. Dhawan later told this correspondent that he had conveyed to Mr. Bahadur the manner in which he and his supporters were being sidelined by the `coterie' surrounding the present-day powers-that-be. While asserting that he had played a key role in ensuring the victory of the Congress in Chandigarh, he said that his supporters were now feeling `disillusioned.'

According to highly-placed sources, Mr. Bahadur is understood to have assured supporters of Mr. Sharma and Mr. Dhawan that organisational elections would be held in a free and fair manner and he would examine the points raised in the memorandum.

Meanwhile, Mr. P. B. Bhargav, general secretary of the District Congress Committee (Urban), told this correspondent that a large number of workers and office-bearers brought to the notice of the Chairman gross irregularities in the process of enrolling members in the urban areas.

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