Infighting in UP Cong intensifies

Less than four weeks before the plenary session of the Congress in Hyderabad, there is uncertainty about the participation of All India Congress Committee (AICC) members from Uttar Pradesh, the Nehru-Gandhi family's political turf.

About three months after the proposed list of AICC members for Uttar Pradesh was submitted for the approval of the party's central election authority, its chairman Oscar Fernandes is yet to clear the names, according to highly placed party sources.

The list of 134 AICC members had been prepared by party's General Secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Satyavrat Chaturvedi, following instructions from Congress President Sonia Gandhi. She was said to have given her nod to the proposed list about three months back. It was to be formally cleared by the election authority.

The sources said UP Congress Committee President Salman Khursheed, in the meantime, had submitted another list to the authority. While 84 of a total 134 names were common in both lists, they differed with regard to the remaining 50, said sources.

Oscar Fernandes was learnt to have asked the AICC general secretary to sit with the UPCC president and sort out the differences. Chaturvedi rather offered to withdraw his list, asserting that the party president had asked him specifically to prepare it without seeking any recommendation from the state unit, said the sources.

The general secretary was said to have suggested that the two lists be submitted to the Congress president so that she could take the final decision. Fernandes, however, was learnt to have rejected the idea, asserting that the matter could be sorted out without any intervention of the high command.

As the stalemate continues, party leaders blame some senior "colleagues" for inciting the factional feud.

"Since the Congress president had instructed Chaturvedi to prepare the list, there was no need for Khursheed to send another list. Now the best solution is to seek Soniaji's intervention. But, obviously, some people want the two to fight it out," said a senior leader.

Party leaders confided that differences between Chaturvedi and Khursheed are one of the main reasons the party has not been able to revive itself in UP. Sometime back, the Congress president was learnt to have taken a serious view about the party's dismal performance in this state.

She was said to have recommended mass contact programmes, but her lieutenants apparently have other priorities.