Sonia Gandhi on way to Rahul’s house.

Congress crisis: Rahul missing, Sonia trying to bring back order in party in drift

Congress facing toughest phase; several senior party leaders mired in legal battles

Agency Report | New Delhi | 18 September, 2019 | 11:00 PM

The Congress is facing its toughest phase as several of the senior party leaders are mired in legal battles, with at least two of them either in judicial custody or in the custody of investigative agencies. Ever since his mother Sonia Gandhi was elected as interim Congress president over a month ago, former party chief Rahul Gandhi has been missing from action. Interim chief Sonia Gandhi may have taken some "corrective steps" over the last one month, but some party leaders feel she has failed to take any measures to revive the party after the Lok Sabha poll drubbing.

Among those facing investigations or going through the judicial processes are senior Congress leaders like P. Chidambaram, former Karnataka Minister D.K. Shivakumar, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, senior party leader Moti Lal Vora, husband of Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Robert Vadra and Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi.

Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, was first to face the heat of the investigative agencies after the Lok Sabha polls.

He was arrested on August 21 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing the case of alleged irregularities in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval to the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore when Chidambaram was the Finance Minister.

Following the arrest, Chidambaram, who had also held the portfolio of Home Minister, spent 14 days in CBI custody till September 4. He was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody on September 5 by a Delhi court.

Former Karnataka minister and senior party leader D.K. Shivakumar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on September 3 in connection with its probe into the charges of money laundering.

Shivakumar is considered to be the party’s troubleshooter as he was instrumental in keeping the Gujarat Congress MLAs from being poached in 2017 ahead of the Rajya Sabha election.

He was arrested after the Karnataka High Court rejected his plea for interim protection from arrest by the financial probe agency in late August.

Shivakumar was on the radar of the Income Tax Department and the ED since demonetisation in 2016. An I-T search at his New Delhi flat on August 2, 2017 led to seizure of Rs 8.59 crore unaccounted cash. The I-T Department lodged cases against him and his four associates under sections 277 and 278 of the I-T Act, 1961 and sections 120(B), 193 and 199 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Based on the I-T Department charge sheet, the ED registered a money laundering case against Shivakumar, Haumanthaiah, an employee at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, and others.

Shivakumar had arranged for their stay at a luxury resort in Karnataka in 2017. Ahmed Patel, the Congress candidate, won the vote narrowly. The Karnataka legislator also shepherded MLAs in Karnataka during the coalition government of the Janata Dal-Secular and the Congress and held talks with the rebel MLAs.

Trouble is also brewing for Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath in the 35-year-old anti-Sikh riot case as the Union Home Ministry on September 9 gave its nod to reopen the case by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

A London-based journalist Sanjay Suri and another person Mukhtiar Singh have expressed readiness to depose for his alleged role in the case.

Kamal Nath was an accused in the case initially, but the court had found no evidence against him.

Kamal Nath is also facing the heat of the I-T department. The I-T department had conducted searches at 52 locations in April this year, including in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, on charges of tax evasion and hawala transactions against close aides of the Chief Minister and others.

Meanwhile, Kamal Nath’s nephew Ratul Puri was arrested by the ED last month in connection with a bank fraud case and his linkages with the AgustaWestland case.

Trouble is also mounting for Hooda.

The ED on August 27 filed a chargesheet against Congress-promoted Associated Journals Limited (AJL), Vora and Hooda in its probe into the money laundering case.

The AJL is controlled by senior Congress leaders, including members of the Gandhi family. The group runs the National Herald newspaper.

The ED had said the accused have been named in the chargesheet for their “direct” involvement in the process connected with acquisition, possession or projection of “proceeds of crime i.e. Plot No.C-17, Sector 6, Panchkula, to the tune of Rs 64.9 crore.

Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra is also facing charges of money laundering in several land deals in Rajasthan and Haryana during the Congress regime. He has been questioned by the ED on several occasions.

Son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi is also on the I-T department radar. On August 27, the department had attached a benami property in the form of a hotel worth Rs 150 crore in Gurugram allegedly belonging to Bishnio and his brother. The property was attached under section 24(3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.

According to the IT department officials, the agency attached Bristol Hotel, adding that the asset was owned in the name of Bright Star Hotel Pvt Ltd.

They said entity and its assets were benami assets of Bishnoi and Chander Mohan, sons of late former Chief Minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal.

The I-T department had carried out searches at several residential and official premises of Bishnoi in July this year.
Ever since his mother Sonia Gandhi was elected as interim Congress president over a month ago, former party chief Rahul Gandhi has been missing from action.

Rahul quit the post of Congress president after the party’s severe poll debacle and refused to reconsider his decision, despite being persuaded.

In his resignation letter, he had said no Gandhi should take over as the party chief. However, three months later, senior leaders decided that Sonia Gandhi should take over as the interim party chief.

Over the last several days, Rahul has been missing from action, although his twitter handle is active, commenting on events and statements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers.

While his mother and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been holding discussions with party leaders in connection with the upcoming Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, the 49-year-old Congress MP has not been seen at these confabulations.

He didn’t attend the crucial meeting on September 12, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, where the country’s economic situation was discussed and a slew of decisions was taken.

The meeting, meant for party general secretaries, states’ in-charge, state unit chiefs and leaders of the Congress Legislature parties, was also attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior party leader AK Antony.

When asked about Rahul Gandhi’s absence, party leader R.P.N. Singh said the meeting was only for general secretaries and states’ in-charge.

Sonia Gandhi has also been deciding organisational issues.

She has also been busy in finalising candidates for upcoming Assembly elections and has been presiding over meetings of Congress Election Committee. The Assembly polls are crucial for the Congress as it will be making attempts to wrest power from the BJP in these states.

She presided over the party’s election committee meeting to decide on candidates for Maharashtra Assembly polls last week.

When contacted, Rahul Gandhi’s office said he didn’t attend as he is not a member of the election panel.

Some party leaders claim that he has confined himself to his constituency Wayanad in Kerala.

To scotch speculation, the party listed activities of Rahul Gandhi, a member of the Congress Working Committee. He attended the August 10 CWC meeting that took up the issue of new president and was also present at the CWC sitting convened to discuss the abolition of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. He also tried to visit Srinagar with a delegation of Opposition leaders, toured Wayanad.

Congress sources said he would be participating in the ‘padyatra’ on Gandhi ‘Jayanti’ on October 2. The party has planned padyatras across the country on the 150 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Congress Sources said Rahul will be campaigning for the party in the Assembly elections.

When Rahul took over as party president in 2017, he had appointed many young leaders. He experimented by introducing elections in youth and student bodies.

However, many senior leaders believe that this has ruined the organisation.

Priyanka Gandhi, during her visit to UP, has said that many senior leaders were against the election system in the organisation.
It has been over a month since Sonia Gandhi took charge of the Congress once again but the party is still to recover from the severe setback it suffered in the Lok Sabha elections and there seems to be no clear plan in sight about its revival.

The grand old party, which could manage to win only 52 out of 542 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, is ridden with infighting and desertions, besides seemingly the lack of direction. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it had got 44 seats.

Amid despair and son Rahul Gandhi’s decision to step down from the post of party president, Sonia Gandhi was appointed as the party’s interim chief on August 10 at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), its highest decision-making body.

Rahul relinquished the post, to which he had been appointed in 2017, taking moral responsibility for the electoral debacle.

The immediate task at Sonia Gandhi’s hands is to ensure cohesion in the party, stop desertions and prepare for the Assembly elections due in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana in the next few months.

On September 12, she held a meeting with all the party general secretaries, states’ in-charge and state unit chiefs and emphasized on the need for coordination, while invoking the ideology of the party as well as that of Mahatma Gandhi.

She advised party leaders to not only agitate on social media but also to go to the people and highlight the misdeeds of the government over economic slowdown and retrenchment in several sectors.

Some sections in the party say Sonia Gandhi has taken some “corrective steps” over the last one month, but some others feel she has failed to take any measures to revive the party after the Lok Sabha poll drubbing.

“We cannot see a revival plan to date. No major decision has yet been taken,” a party leader said.

The party leader pointed out that a decision on ‘one-man, one-post’ is yet to be implemented in the central leadership.

Giving examples of party leaders holding multiple posts, he said Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad also holds the post of General Secretary and Haryana in-charge. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath is also the state unit chief and Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot is also the state unit chief.

He further said there is no indication yet from the central leadership to boost the morale of the party workers which has been completely shattered. “And to boost the morale of the party workers and supporters, a major reform in the party is required.”

Besides, the poll-bound states, the party needs leadership change in many other states like Karnataka, Telangana, Goa, where the party has witnessed desertions after the Lok Sabha polls.

In these states, the Congress has seen mass desertions by its MLAs over the last few months. In Karnataka, the party lost its 14-month coalition government to the BJP in July after several MLAs switched sides.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress leader pointed out, all the district committees of the party were dissolved in July this year but no decision has been taken since to reconstitute those.

“And now there are by-polls in 13 Assembly constituencies (of UP),” he said, adding, “So, who is going to lead the party there?”

On the other hand, a Congress general secretary, wishing not to be named, said, “Sonia Gandhi has done a lot of work in the last month. She has saved the party from splitting in Haryana and Maharashtra, by taking corrective decisions at right time before it was too late.”

As an example of Sonia Gandhi’s “achievements”, the party leader referred to the appointment of former union minister Kumari Selja, considered close to her, as the Haryana Congress chief by replacing Ashok Tanwar, a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi.

“While doing so, she also appointed former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the chairman of the Election Committee and the CLP as well as the leader of the party in the state, thus ending his threat to the party, which he gave during his mega rally in Rohtak on August 18,” he said.

He noted that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson has also taken organisational decisions in Maharashtra, where the Assembly polls will be held shortly.

“By appointing Balasaheb Tharot as the party state unit chief, she has given an indication that the party is not taking the Assembly elections lightly in the state,” he said.

He said with revocation of the expulsion of former state minister and Vidarbha leader Satish Chaturvedi, Sonia Gandhi has given a clear message that the party wants to make a comeback in this election.

She has also appointed Jyotiraditya Scindia as chairman of screening committee for Maharashtra polls. Scindia is engaged in a bitter fight with Kamal Nath, Chief Minister of his home state Madhya Pradesh.

She also appointed Rameshwar Oraon as the Jharkhand Congress chief, following the resignation of Ajoy Kumar, who accused several senior party leaders of not working for the party.

During her meeting with the party Chief Ministers, states’ in-charge and state unit chiefs, Sonia Gandhi had batted for preference in party posts to the workers responsible for the party’s victory in the Congress-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Punjab and Union Territory of Puducherry.

A party general secretary said after making appointments in the poll-bound states, Sonia Gandhi is now focusing on Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where infighting among the top leaders is clearly visible.

“In a bid to end infighting in the Madhya Pradesh, where the party has a thin majority with the support of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and independent MLAs, she has held meeting with Chief Minister Kamal Nath thrice in last three weeks, the latest being on September 13 during the meeting of all party Chief Ministers, states’ in-charge and state unit chiefs.

“Before the Chief Ministers’ meeting, Sonia Gandhi conveyed to Kamal Nath her unhappiness over the infighting and asked state in-charge Deepak Babaria to submit a report on the same,” he said.

The Congress leader said Scindia, whose faction has openly demanded his appointment as the state unit chief, is also likely to meet Sonia Gandhi to discuss the leadership issue in the state.

The verbal war between the Scindia faction and the rest had snowballed into a major crisis in the state.

Meanwhile in Rajasthan, fissures in the state unit have come out openly with Pilot openly criticising Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot over the issue of delay in forming an SIT over the death of Pehlu Khan after it came to power in the state and even poor law and order situation. (IANS)