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'Weak' Kannauj candidate upsets Congress

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

A section of the Congress leadership is dissatisfied with party chief Sonia Gandhi for setting up a "weak" party candidate for the Kannauj parliamentary by-polls.

An angry representation by Uttar Pradesh state Congressmen to the party chief has failed to elicit any response from her on the issue, leaving a trail of dissent in party circles.

"It is a great embarrassment for us because Congressmen are questioning why Sonia has consented to the candidature of such a weak candidate like Satyadev Tripathi. We are forced to remain silent and that has only aggravated the matter," a party general secretary admitted speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress unit has been a divided lot with Sonia dissolving it and then re-appointing Salman Khursheed as the state party chief which has caused considerable heartburn, especially in former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Jitendra Prasada.

"Don't ask me why Satyadev Tripathi is our candidate for the Kannauj parliamentary by-polls. Those who have made him the candidate will be responsible for the results which are bound to be dismal," Prasada pointed out.

Prasada's "running feud" with Khursheed is a well-documented development and the former's supporters are quick to emphasise that Tripathi's candidature for the Kannauj by-polls "shows the poverty of mind of the party chief and her lack of leadership".

The aggrieved Uttar Pradesh Congressmen's grievance is that Tripathi has been pitted against political heavyweights like Akhilesh Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, and BSP veteran Akbar (Dumpy) Ahmed.

Besides, the state Congressmen indicated that if the Bharatiya Janata Party does not field a party candidate from Kannauj, its ally in Uttar Pradesh, the Loktantrik Congress Party, will field a veteran. "All these facts make a mockery of Tripathi's candidature," they fumed.

Samajwadi Party general secretary Ramgopal Yadav indicated that the Kannauj by-poll was in reality a contest between his party, the BSP and the BJP-LCP combine.

"Look, the Congress simply does not figure, its leadership is living in a fool's paradise," Ramgopal emphasised and added that the Congress candidate was being made a " bali ka bakra " (sacrificial lamb).

Congress sources indicated that the Kannauj conundrum would be a litmus test for the party chief whose mettle was being tested as she fought to capture supremacy not only within her party but prominence among the Opposition line-up.

The sources pointed out that at present, Sonia was not in a mood to listen to any advice from her partymen except the "usual lackeys". They said the same partymen were surrounding her now as during the parliamentary polls in which the party bagged the worst-ever record of 112 seats.

Prasada is reported to be in touch with senior central party leaders who share his agony on Tripathi's candidate from Kannauj. The Congress sources underlined that the dissidents would make their move soon after the result of the by-polls in Kannauj was known.

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