Maharashtra Cong. gearing to go it alone

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, SEPT. 29. The Congress has launched a campaign in Maharashtra to prepare itself to fight all future elections on its own. The campaign is being spearheaded by the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Mr. Govindrao Adik.

The party feels that sooner or later, it has to run the Government in the State without a messy and inconvenient coalition with the Nationalist Congress Party.

Elections to 172 municipal corporations will be fought for the first time on party basis in December.

Curiously though, the Chief Minister, Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, has limited his participation to the formal inauguration of the campaign, launched by the AICC president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, in Pune on August 24. Mr. Adik, when asked, said Mr. Deshmukh was busy with official chores and would join one day or the other. He said Mr. Deshmukh was doing a fine job in difficult circumstances with partners who were not ``part of a political alliance''.

Across Marathwada and half of Vidarbha, Mr. Adik's campaign has seen a dialogue between him and the workers, where views on the viability of civic elections on the party's own strength were solicited. The Congress workers, who find it difficult to travel to Mumbai and gain access to leaders, were happy and even garrulous. They agreed that fighting the civic polls on its own symbol was a good idea, but at the same time complained how ministers, including the Chief Minister, ``neglected the party and its workers'.

Even periodic appearances of Mr. Deshmukh during the campaign would have brought a greater purpose to the effort at putting the party back on its feet. The current view, as voiced by workers this correspondent met during the early part of the campaign, is that it has tended to get an avoidable partisan dimension. Contrary to Maharashtra's pattern, Mr. Adik is not a party chief subservient to the Chief Minister; he is on his own steam, pro- active and fast-footed. Dr. D.N. Tirukh, Akola chief of the party says: ``He does not give me a moment's rest. It is work all the time''.

The elections to civic bodies would cover about 30 per cent of the voting population. It has generated a huge response from the cadre which applauds at the party's intent to ask local leaders to choose proper candidates. In a State where close to half of the population is urban, the campaign is the best means of testing political waters. The polls to the Zilla Panchayats and Panchayat Samitis will be held in February.

The outcome, when fought on its own, would indicate the party's reach as it has evolved after the split - the new mutant is the NCP - and encourage the Congress to devise its options. The NCP has already said it would not ally with any party for the civic polls, but is uncomfortable that civic chiefs are to be elected directly unlike in the past and the Shiv Sena and the BJP are yet to decide on their options.

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Section  : Other States
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