Congress Undecided About Gujarat Political Turmoil

After the open talk of withdrawing support from the Shankersinh Vaghela government in Gujarat, the Congress is in a dilemma over its next step.

A senior party leader said the fall-out of the next step could prove to be disastrous for Congress, whichever way it decided. If it withdrew support, it might be seen as a destabilising force especially after it brought down the Gowda government, and if it made up with Vaghela, the party rank and file in the state would be demoralised.

The party might, therefore, take time to make up its mind. Pranab Mukherjee, Sukhbans Kaur and Vyalar Ravi, who returned to the Capital on Wednesday after studying the situation in Ahmedabad, are said to have decided to prepare a written report only after discussing these contentious issues with party president Sitaram Kesri.

The observers briefed Kesri on the Gujarat situation yesterday evening, but are expected to continue these discussions for a few days before announcing its report. Yesterdays meeting continued through the evening. The general impression of the observers, according to a senior party insider, is that the party rank and file, up to the district leadership, were unhappy over their neglect by Vaghela followers. They complain that the BJP functionaries wielded more clout in the government than Congress workers. Vaghela broke off from the BJP to form the government with the Congress outside support.

Most of the Congress legislators hold a contrary view. They feel that the BJP would lose no time to form a government in the state once Vaghela was brought down. The BJP needed only 18 more MLAs for a majority and might get more from Vaghelas party.

A small group of MLAs wants Congress to join the government to solve the present crisis. But this would only give credence to the allegations of a Congress hand behind the split in the BJP leading to installation of Vaghela.

As a via media, there is a suggestion for a co-ordination committee with Vaghela government. But any such committee should involve district level Congress functionaries to remove their grievances. But even this could project Congress as party to the commissions and omissions of the government.

During their two-day stay in Ahmedabad where the three members of the team met over 250 Congress functionaries, two separate memoranda were presented to them by two different groups of party legislators. Manubhai Kotadia and Virji Thumar submitted a memorandum signed by 23 out of 44 Congress MLAs. Eleven MLAs submitted a separate memorandum.