NEW DELHT: A split “by accident” in the Congress may not have split the party vertically as only 12 members ‘of the Lok Sabha participated in the convention of Congress workers last week, but it has certainly put Prime Minister and Congress President P.V. Narasimha Rao under pressure.

Rao loyalists now cannot afford to annoy anybody anymore and would have to distribute largesse to even undeserving ones. The flamboyant R.K. Dhawan who used to frown upon at everybody at the Congress Working Committee meetings is a changed man, When Ahmed Patel, AICC General Secretary, and Rajesh Pilot, Minister of State for Internal Security, pleaded that the AICC must be convened and the party should go to the workers, no one opposed the demand.

The Rao loyalists had a tough time. They pleaded that first a Narora type camp of senior leaders be held to devise a strategy to fight divisive forces and the date of the AICC meeting be finalized after the by-elections. AK. Antony, Beant Singh, Sharad Pawar and others could not attend the meeting due to their preoccupation. But the signs of strains are clear. Patel and Pilot will not allow Rao off the hook. They will soon be joined by Sharad Pawar and probably Karunakaran as well, However, Rao will not be in a position to touch a single member of the Lok Sabha because he has a thin majority in the House. It was brought to the notice of the Prime Minister that if even these 12 Lok Sabha MPs had voted against the government (at the cost of their membership) on cut motions, the government would have been in serious trouble. It was pointed out that the Opposition polled 204 votes while the government got 240 when the crucial cut ‘motion on the Ministry of Communication was put vote. The cut motion was moved by Dr. Pandey of the BJP and the entire Opposition voted fort ‘The dissidents in the Congress developed cold feet. They did not vote along with the Opposition. But the difference was a mere 36 votes and if the 19 Congress MPs had voted with the Opposition, the Rao government would have been out of office.

Arjun Singh certainly failed to muster adequate support from his own home state at the convention, Neither many workers came and nor any MLA or MP was visible there. Most of the Signatories who had organized the convention deserted Arjun Singh at the last minute. While six MPs came from Tamil Nadu, the other six came from Punjab, Jagmeet Brar, Rajasthan; Shiv Charan Mathur, Tripura; Mrs.

Vighu Kumar, Assam; Swarup Upadhyay, Kamataka; Nayak, and Madhya Pradesh; Shivendra Bahadur Singh.

The Rao establishment had managed another seven Lok Sabha MPs from Madhya Pradesh with complete success. Same happened to Surinder Singh Kairon of Punjab who met the Prime Minister on the night of May 19, Same was the fate of Surjewala of Haryana, although he belonged to the Rajya Sabha and did not matter in the scheme of things.

The Rao establishment was happy to nip the revolt in the bud. But this is no major achievement as threat continues to loom large. These MPs would continue to demand their pound of flesh and another trial of strength will come on May 23 when the Finance Bill will be put to vote. Rao, therefore, is unable to issue even a showcase notice to any of his Lok Sabha MP, leave alone expelling him from the party. The CWC failed to bring any cheers in real terms to the Rao Loyalists because dissidents can still bring down the government the fence sitters are demanding a price because the Congress is dying and whosoever will give more prices they will go with him. Arjun Singh has now finally decided to form a party against his wishes; Will he save Rao on May 23? There match will begin after the Parliament session.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 26, 1995