NEW DELHI, Jan 31, Reuter: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, having lost Southern India to the Opposition, now faces a revolt within his Congress (I) party in its last and electorally crucial bastion in the north.

Gandhi’s opponents say the bitter infighting that erupted in Congress governments in the northern states of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar last week were sparked by the humiliating Congress loss in Tamil Nadu state elections earlier this month.

They are signs of the party’s irredeemable loss of faith in Gandhi as a votecatcher in the general elections, said A.P. Venkateswaran of the Centre for policy Tesearch.

General elections are scheduled to be called by the end of the year, but Gandhi was widely expected to bring them forward if the Tamil Nadu verdict had been different.

“Now a humiliating loss there has put the congress out of power in all four southern states and weakened his hold on the party,” said Venkateswaran.

The troubles in the north erupted immediately after the Tamil Nadu polls on January 21, with dissident congress members of the Madhya Pradesh and Bihar state assemblies demanding that the party leadership agree to their choice of Chief Ministers.

Gandhi, failing in the past week to resolve the crisis, was due to discuss the issue at a meeting of his party’s top body, the Congress working committee, on Tuesday evening.

But hours before the meeting, Bihar’s dissidents defied Gandhi’s orders and decided to boycott the budget session of the assembly until the congress leadership agreed to replace Chief Minister Bhagwat Jha Azad with their candidate.

In Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi swiftly replaced Chief Minister Arjun Singh after a court ordered an inquiry into a lottery that members of his family were running in the state. But the move split congress assemblymen into powerful factions there.

The bitter infighting has been temporarily halted by the appointment of Motilal Vora to the state’s top political post.

The two states are located in the important Hindi speaking belt of northern India and account for 94 of the 546 seats in the national parliament’s lower house, where Gandhi must win a majority in general elections to keep power.

The congress was under challenge in the north from a newly formed opposition alliance called the national front and led by Gandhi’s biggest political rival, Vishwanath Pratap Singh.

Singh dealt the first blow last year by returning to parliament with a by-election victory in a prestigious constituency of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, after quitting Gandhi’s cabinet and party.

Uttar Pradesh, which contributes 85 parliament members, has been free of dissidence after Gandhi shifted Finance Minister Narain Dutt Tiwari there as Chief Minister.

Tiwari is one concession Gamade in his policy of ruling the through Chief Ministers with weak political bases, said a Senior Congress leader unwilling to be named.

“There is an atmosphere being built up that those who have a base in their states are not loyal. So the dissidents won’t be allowed to have their way in choosing a popular leader as Chief Minister because that is how alternatives to Rajiv Gandhi can emerge. That can be the ultimate truth to him.

This revolt has not remained confined to the north, but it has also shown its effect in the western region. A veteran coujrat leader Chiman Bhai Mehta has openly called for a fresh look on the issue of a new leadership, pointing to Rajiv Gandhi for his failure to deliver the goods, Mr. Mehta was however, quickly placed under suspension by the AICC Congress.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 3, 1989