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Sangma's elevation reveals Sonia's gameplan

The task force constituted to revitalise the Congress indicates that party president Sonia Gandhi would take all the decisions independently, rather than depend on advisors.

Recognising former Lok Sabha speaker Purno A Sangma's stellar performance in Parliament when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was facing a trust vote, Sonia has asked him to head the task force.

While constituting the task force, Sonia has sidelined two party veterans who ruled the roost in the Sitaram Kesri dispensation -- Jitendra Prasada and Pranab Mukherjee. However, their colleagues in the Congress Working Committee -- Sharad Pawar, Arjun Singh, Manmohan Singh, A K Antony and Ahmed Patel -- have been included in the panel.

Prasada's followers have told Rediff On The Net that they were extremely distressed by the non-inclusion of their mentor in the task force. They said that this amounted to an insult to a senior leader who has been the party's vice-president.

The development has come as a jolt for Mukherjee, too.

Besides ignoring the claims of these two veterans, Sonia has decided to clip the wings of several overambitious party leaders. As part of her gameplan, she seems to be encouraging Congress's Uttar Pradesh and Bihar panel convenor Sushil Kumar Shinde to keep Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar in check. A K Antony has been brought into the AICC task force to counter former Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran. Arjun Singh has been included to stall Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's designs.

While Dr Manmohan Singh has been included because of his economic expertise, Ahmed Patel has been roped in take care of the party affairs in Gujarat.

According to Congress functionaries, Sonia would evaluate the contribution of the task force members who are expected to submit a concrete agenda for revitalising the party as well as the frontal organisations.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesman V N Gadgil yesterday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to give the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh prayer Namaste Sada Vatsale the status of a national song.

Moreover, the imminent appointment of hardcore RSS leader Kushbhau Thakre as BJP chief showed the shape of things to come, he said.

Reiterating that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government has a hidden agenda, Gadgil pointed out, ''There is concrete indication, as reflected in the recent statements of Union Home Minister and BJP president Lal Kishenchand Advani and Vajpayee, that the Ayodhya mandir would be built.'' Gadgil referred to a report in the RSS newspaper, the Organiser in this context.

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