Lobbying on for PCC posts

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 31. The Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi's recent directive to the AICC general secretaries asking them to complete the reconstitution of the State units has led to a rush. Leaders of rival factions and PCC contenders have made a beeline here to lobby for themselves and against their rivals.

The organisational elections were completed in November last with the election of Ms. Gandhi as Congress president. However, the process of reconstituting the PCCs was incomplete, with the State units authorising Ms. Gandhi to nominate the people of her choice.

Leaders of rival factions in Gujarat have come here to lobby their case. The supporters of the former Union Minister and CWC member, Mr. Madhavsinh Solanki called on Ms. Gandhi and Mr. Kamal Nath, the general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, to push Mr. Solanki's case, as did Mr. Amarsinh Chaudhray and Ms. Urmila Patel.

In Gujarat the race is on to find a successor for C.D. Patel who died five months ago, and several claimants have thrown their hats into the ring. Prominent among those are Mr. Solanki, the State CLP leader Mr. Amarsinh Chaudhray, Ms. Urmila Patel and Mr. Manohar Jadeja.

The race for the PCC post has also led to a revival of the Solanki-Ahmad Patel rivalry. Mr. Solanki's supporters accuse Mr. Patel of trying to keep Mr. Solanki out in order to control the State unit. A charge which Mr. Patel vehemently denies, ``I have never interfered and have no axe to grind against anybody'' says Mr. Patel.

Observers say that in the 15 years that Mr. Solanki remained at the Centre, his rivals held sway over the PCC. Ever since he returned to the State after being denied a Rajya Sabha ticket, his supporters have become restive and have been demanding that he take charge of the PCC. In fact, relations between the two groups appeared to have reached the nadir last year when the State PCC suspended his son Mr. Bharat Solanki and three of his supporters for holding a separate party convention. The suspensions were later revoked. Mr. Solanki's supporters have been doing the rounds here to press his case and have urged the leadership not to go by the PCC list in deciding the next chief. They allege that the PCC list is packed with supporters belonging to the anti-Solanki factions and, therefore, is not a factual indication of real strengths of the contenders.

Mr. Solanki's supporters say the OBC's, the minorities and the SC's account for 70 per cent of the State's population and Mr. Solanki, who was among the first to introduce reservation for the OBC's, is the most logical choice. By virtue of having been the Chief Minister four times and a three-time PCC chief, he has the right credentials as well as the experience to bring the party back to power.

The other contender for the PCC chiefs post is Mr. Amarsinh Chaudhray, the first tribal Chief Minister of the State and now leader of the legislature party in the Assembly. His opponents say that there is a case pending against him before the Lok Ayukta, besides the fact that he is already holding the CLP leader's post and appointing him the PCC chief would mean that the party would again have to find another CLP leader.

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Section  : National
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