Orchestrating a CWC
When the “Letter Bomb”, as it’s known, was handed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the Gandhis moved into damage control mode. The Working Committee seemed the best platform to take on the letter writers, as only four of the 23 rebels are CWC members. Accordingly, “loyalists” were given the go ahead to profess their loyalty to the Gandhis on social media, the BJP collusion was hinted at, and Sonia Gandhi’s plan to resign was leaked. Having whipped the right emotional overtones, the meeting became all about professing loyalty to the family, while the real issues raised in the letter were sidelined. The choice of speakers is interesting: A.K. Antony, whose loyalty to Sonia Gandhi cannot be questioned, but his allegiance to Camp Rahul is yet to be ascertained, considering his bête-noir from the state, K.C. Venugopal is emerging as one of Rahul’s key aides; Dr Manmohan Singh, whose UPA government still was recently attacked by Team Rahul as well as Ambika Soni who is known to be close to both Ghulam Nabi Azad and Manish Tewari. Also, it is well known that the minutes of the meeting were leaked to the media while it was going on. Was this leak authorised? Some believe so and blame the person tasked with this job for creating the confusion over Rahul’s comments, where he was misquoted of accusing the letter writers of colluding with the BJP. And finally came the CWC resolution which asked Sonia to continue as the interim president and gave no time frame as to when the AICC session to elect the next president would be convened. Will there be an election to the post of the party chief or will Rahul be nominated once again? And when will this take place? So in the end, after seven long hours of competing with the Sushant Singh Rajput case for TRPs, the Congress is back to status quo. More or less, with 23 members give and take. However sources claim that Rahul has reached out to the letter writers and assured them of an election to the post of party chief. Will one of them contest the polls, given Shashi Tharoor’s recent let’s-move-on tweet?
Who leaked the Congress letter?
Much has been written about the infamous missive shot off by 23 Congress leaders asking for a sustained, accessible and participatory leadership of the party. An entire Congress Working Committee meet devoted seven hours to contain the fallout of the letter, but interestingly, it was nearly a week later that this missive was released to the media. However, select passages of this five-page document were leaked before the CWC, but the letter writers maintain that they did not leak the letter as leaking it would only sabotage their interests, which was not to attack the leadership but ensure certain issues were discussed. They claim that only one copy of the letter was prepared and read out to others on the phone (note read, not WhatsApped). Later this was sent to Sonia Gandhi’s office on 7 August and a significant portion of this letter appeared in the media on the 23rd, right on the eve of a CWC meet. So the question remains: who leaked select portions of it? The letter writers have their suspects, these include a party general secretary close to Rahul Gandhi, a former Cabinet Minister turned columnist who is close to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and a key trouble shooter for Camp Sonia.
The missing CM
Why was Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal missing from the meeting hosted by Sonia Gandhi with all the non NDA Chief Ministers? According to the AAP, Kejriwal was not invited. For its part the Congress sources point out that well, every time they issue an invitation, Kejriwal refuses to attend. So why bother?
Road to Rajya Sabha
BJP has nominated Zafar Ul Islam for the Rajya Sabha from Amar Singh’s seat. The investment banker turned politician was formerly with the Congress and part of Deepender Hooda’s social media team till 2104. After which he joined the BJP and became the Muslim face of the party on TV channel debates, along with Shahnawaz Hussain. In fact given the fact that Bihar polls are round the corner, it’s interesting that he was given priority over the latter, for Shahnawaz is also a popular face on TV debates. Then again, that’s how politics works.