NEW DELH: Preparing for what they believe to be a psychological war for the mind of the average Congressman the Congress rebels have decided to complete the formalities of reconstituting important party bodies and cells before launching the campaign for the general elections.

The senior leaders of the breakaway Congress who held their version of the Congress Working Committee at ‘Arjun Singh’s residence, agreed that ‘instead of insisting on numbers and Technicalities, a message had to be ‘Sent out that they conclusively represented the panty.

In a move to reassure the fence sitters among the Congress MPs, both ND Tiwari and Arjun Singh affirmed that they had no intention of toppling the Narasimha Rao Government.

“Our first task is to build up the party so that it can face the general elections with confidence, Tiwari said discounting any attempt on their part to destabilize the Government.

‘Singh on his part said that they desist from any move that could benefit the BJP. “An early election will only benefit the BJP and certainly not the Congress,” he remarked. “There is no question of bringing down the Government,” he told reporters charging it was the Rao camp which was thinking in terms of an early poll.

He said that the political and economic documents adopted by the ‘Congress Workers’ convention would form the basis of their election campaign, “We have to go to all the states to tell the people what we are intending to do,” he said.

During the deliberations the leaders held that a concerted move would have to be made to impress upon the rank and file that their faction represented the real Congress. They took a number of important decisions at the closed-door meeting.

It was decided that important bodies like the Congress Parliamentary Board, Congress Working Committee, Central Election Committee and the student, youth and women’s wings would be reconstituted shortly. The breakaway group would soon have a full-fledged party headquarters in the capital of facilitate its functioning. Any physical attempt to take possession of the AICC office at 24 Akbar Road was ruled out. “There was broad agreement that more than statistics regarding the number of legislators on their side would count in the ultimate analysis,

Article extracted from this publication >> May 26, 1995