Aditi Phadnis: The Congress' super minister

BACKSTAGE

In a party where shrewd people are to be found under every stone and in every corner, a debate is on in the Congress on why Ambika Soni should not be crowned the shrewdest of the shrewd.

Soni "renounced" a ministership soon after the offer of one was reportedly made to her. She could have declared her reluctance to be a minister much earlier.

But as a public gesture, renouncing a post gets you more political mileage than merely saying in advance that you'd rather not be a minister and would prefer to work in the party.

Be that as it may, by making the move she has, Soni has followed in Sonia Gandhi's footsteps. In the years to come, this could be the smartest thing to do.

Consider the configuration of forces thrown up by Sonia's decision not to be prime minister. All her time is now going to be spent building up the party.

Son and scion Rahul is, in all probability, going to be in the party as well. And as the Gandhi family is likely to dominate the proceedings in the Congress Party in the foreseeable future as well, closeness to it will pay.

Sonia has amended the party constitution to ensure that she, as Congress president, appoints the prime minister.

The feelings of the Congress Parliamentary Party are secondary. In the circumstances, Sonia is likely to be in control of not just the party but also the government.

Soni, who is not known for having a mass base either in Punjab, her home state, or Haryana or even New Delhi, her adopted state, is unlikely to find fighting elections easy.

In her present position as general secretary in charge of the Congress president's office, she will be privy to all the correspondence "" written and verbal "" between the government and the party. This is tantamount to being super minister.

This is not the first time Soni has offered to resign. Preemptive resignations were offered by all general secretaries and members of the Working Committee after the party's Assembly election defeat in 2003.

In a Sanjay Gandhi-type storm-trooper operation mounted without Sonia's consent, officebearers across the board were bludgeoned into resigning.

Several leaders said this was done to deflect responsibility that fell on four individuals: Ahmad Patel, Kamal Nath, Mukul Wasnik and Ambika Soni.

On that occasion, Sonia naturally refused to accept resignations. However, the report of the Pranab Mukherjee committee, which went into the causes of the Congress's defeat in the elections, was damningly explicit about the mistakes and mismanagement.

It reportedly included accounts of how seats were "auctioned" in Madhya Pradesh and how in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot found the ground cut from under his feet by the central party when he suggested the seats of 50 MLAs be changed to neutralise the incumbency factor working against them.

The report's finding was that the suggestion was turned down at the general secretary level. At that time, Soni was the general secretary in charge of Rajasthan.

In Delhi, the long delay between the party's victory and the announcement of the chief minister was attributed to the rivalry between the Sajjan Kumar-Jagdish Tytler group and the MLAs loyal to Sheila Dixit.

The Tytler group was given subtle encouragement to egg on Prem Singh, Dixit's primary challenger. This, too, is reported to have been engineered by Soni through suggestions to Patel.

The Chhattisgarh defeat was also pinned on Soni because she was in charge of the state until four months before the Assembly elections.

In the world of intrigue that is the Congress, Soni's gesture was dissected even before she could say "I have taken my decision".

How she fashions her new role is still uncertain. Examine it closely, and the Congress' performance is not as spectacular as people imagine. Yes, there has been an addition of 24 seats. But large parts of India are still under the sway of saffron.

In Punjab, Orissa and Kerala the Congress faces a serious challenge, having produced a dismal result. How the Congress president and the secretary in charge of the Congress president's office think up new ways of engaging the party remains to be seen.