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| Ruling Congress finding itself trapped | | Sonia Gandhi, Sheila Dikshit are in a dilemma | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, NOV. 10
The Congress supremo, Sonia Gandhi, and Chief Minister of Congress-ruled Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, have been thrown into confusion, with as many as 80 Congress councillors having resigned their seats. Even as their resignations are yet to be forwarded to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Commissioner for acceptance, fisures in the ruling Congress party have come to the fore over the closure of illegal shops in residential colonies.
The move by a section of the Congress councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is part of the ongoing blame game within the party. The Congress party is finding itself trapped in the sealing drive being carried out by the MCD under the Supreme Court orders. Interestingly, the party is in power at the Centre, in the provincial Delhi government and in the MCD.
According to a general secretary of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), the move to resign their seats is part of their plan to put the blame back on Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, who has been running a battle with the Delhi unit of the party. MCD polls are scheduled in March, while Assembly elections in Delhi are due only in 2008. "Sheila Dikshit knows well that the people of Delhi are angry with her government and want the voters to vent their ire during MCD polls, hoping by the time the Assembly elections come, things would have settled down", said the Congress leader.
Incidentally, the Dikshit government had managed to retain power with increased majority during 2003 Asembly polls and it was then seen as a positive vote for her development-oriented administration. However, ever since then a series of developments including demolitions of illegal buildings, sealing of commercial establishments functioning out of residential colonies and closure of polluting industrial units have made her government somewhat unpopular. MCD is under the Union government's control and all moves of Sheila Dikshit to bring it under the Delhi government was opposed by the Congress councillors who are said to be closer to her bete noire and the Congress unit chief, Ram Babu Sharma.
The rebels opting to stage the resignation drama are now pinning their hopes on the Central government coming out with the much-awaited new Master Plan for Delhi, which is likely to come out by January-end. The new Master Plan holds the promise to regularise existing shops in residential colonies. Nearly 44,000 commercial units are facing closure from the sealing drive that continued for the third day today under police protection.
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