Sonia quits, takes battle to Opposition

Says she would "definitely" contest from Rai Bareli.

It was the Left parties' opposition to an Ordinance to legitimise her holding of two offices of profit that finally led Congress President Sonia Gandhi to announce her resignation from the Lok Sabha and the National Advisory Council (NAC), plunging her party into a crisis.

But, indicating she would live to fight another day, Gandhi said she would "definitely" contest from Rai Bareli.

"I have been deeply hurt," Gandhi said in a prepared statement which she read out outside her residence, "that for the past two days, an environment has been sought to be created that the government and Parliament are being used only for partisan ends to favour me. I have said earlier as well, that I have not come to politics and public life for selfish interests. I have vowed to serve the Indian society and protect values of secularism. In the interests of public life and ideals of politics, I am resigning from the Lok Sabha. I hope my sisters and brothers from Rai Bareli and indeed the entire country will understand my feelings."

To questions she added, "I intend to continue to fight communalism with all my might." Whether she would contest from Rai Bareli again, she replied, "I will fight, most definitely." Son Rahul watched from the sidelines.

The prepared note did not have any reference to her resignation from the NAC.

This was announced by her during her press interaction, almost as if it was an afterthought.

Neither the Congress nor the opposition National Democratic Alliance, or the Left Front, including the Samajwadi Party, had any idea that Gandhi would make this move, although there was speculation to this effect since last night.

This was after Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held a meeting well past midnight with crisis managers, including Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Law Minister HR Bhardwaj and Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

Gandhi pressed the case for her resignation at that point but crisis managers struck it down, arguing that Opposition protests would die down soon, party sources said.

But Rahul Gandhi and her political adviser Ahmad Patel were said to have advocated that she should resign to steal the thunder from the Opposition camp. The young MP was said to be particularly emphatic that she should not be dragged into what could only be a political mess.

In the morning, Congress sources, who had been present at the meeting, said the announcement of a resignation was imminent.

It was a day of rapid developments. At a press conference in Guwahati, Chief Election Commission BB Tandon was asked in the afternoon what stand the EC would take if they got a complaint against Gandhi holding an office of profit. "The law is the same for everyone," he replied.

But the last straw was the news that an Ordinance to change the definition of offices of profit would not be supported by the Left.

While the CPI went public with its opposition to the Ordinance route, the CPI(M) took a more guarded approach saying that Parliament should legislate over it.

This was an unexpected development. All Ordinances have to be ratified by Parliament within six months. If the government had, as it had planned, brought in the Ordinance and the Left parties and the BJP had ganged up to oppose it, the Ordinance would have fallen through and the government would have had to resign.

This was a sobering thought and stopped the party in its tracks. At around noon, Patil, Patel, Bharadwaj and Mukherjee drove to 10, Janpath for a brief confabulation. This was followed by a closed-door meeting with the prime minister.

At these meetings, Gandhi vetoed all arguments against her resignation. That was around 2 pm. Minutes after that, SMS messages were sent to mediapersons.

It is crystal clear that Gandhi decided to fight it out, rather than throw in the towel in the face of an emerging situation that demonstrated stupendous political mismanagement by her party.

In the full knowledge that the number of MPs who held other offices of profit would be in three digits and cuts across party lines, party managers allowed the situation to get out of hand, not for a moment anticipating that Gandhi might be drawn into the controversy.

Until yesterday, when Parliament was adjourned sine die to facilitate the Ordinance, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi was blaming the Opposition for disrupting House proceedings because "they did not want to discuss the Scorpene (French submarine) matter".

"The news of the Ordinance was deliberately leaked," said a minister, indicating that had it not been for Left ambivalence, the Ordinance would have been pushed through, for all the preparations had been made for the move.