Jobs Bill a feather in Congress cap: Sonia

The tussle between the Left parties and the Congress for the credit for the National Rural Employment Guarantees Programme (NREGP), which became a law yesterday, tumbled out in the open with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi telling her MPs that it was the Congress that had implemented a promise in its manifesto.

"This (NREGP) is a matter of pride and satisfaction. We have fulfilled a key manifesto pledge," she said addressing the general body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party.

It now remains to be seen how the Left parties, that have been claiming that the NREGP in its present form was a result of the consistent pressure they have been bringing to bear on the UPA, will claim ownership of the legislation.

Gandhi said the real work would start now. "We will soon be organising a number of functions to launch the party's active involvement with the implementation of the Employment Guarantee Act," she said.

She said the success of the programme depended crucially on social activism and political mobilisation in which "we will have to play a key leadership role".

She hoped that the employment guarantee programme would be the trigger, which would galvanise the Congress machinery and give it a new momentum in non-Congress states.

Noting that the "overwhelming majority" of the 200 districts in which the NREG would be first implemented had non-Congress governments, she said it showed the party did not play partisan politics when it came to the needs of the poor.

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan where most of these districts are, at the moment, had non-Congress governments.

It also showed the magnitude of the challenge that awaited the Congress where it was not in power, she said

Gandhi also criticised the NDA constituents for "changing their stand" on the Bill aimed at women's empowerment. "But our efforts to build a consensus will continue," she said.

Gandhi said there was an agreement between the UPA and the Left parties on the original Bill, which provided for one-third reservation for women within existing strength of Parliament and Assemblies.

She also asked her party workers to be prepared for challenges in upcoming Assembly election in Bihar and gear up for polls next year in Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and West Bengal.

Congratulating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the rural job guarantee legislation, Gandhi said this had become possible under his leadership.