Rebellion in 3 States

• Rebels demand change of CMs in M’rashtra, Assam, Haryana
• They fear drubbing in upcoming Assembly elections
• Rane quits Cabinet post in M’rashtra
• NCP leader Sharad Pawar had been demanding Chief Minister Chavan’s ouster
• Hemanth Biswas Sarma quits in Assam
• He is supported by half of the party MLAs
• Rao Birender Singh and Selja are up in arms against Hooda in Haryana

New Delhi: After the drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, Congressvice-president Rahul Gandhi is facing yet another big challenge of rebellion in the party. The State leaders, fearing defeat in the upcoming round of Assembly elections, are openly demanding change of leadership in the Congress-ruled States of Haryana, Assam and Maharashtra, with some of the rebels already declaring that they would not contest under the leadership of the present Chief Ministers.

Guns have been trained against Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi,Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Ironically, the demand for their removal is nothing new but the Congress High Command has been dilly-dallying on the issue, refusing to take any action against them. On Monday, Narayan Rane from Maharashtra and Himanta Biswas Sarma from Assam resigned from the respective State cabinets. Both of them claimed that they did not want to continue under the leadership of their respective Chief Ministers Chavan and Gogoi.

The State leaders in all the three States of Assam, Maharashtra and Haryana are wary of contesting Assembly elections, fully aware that the results will be no different from that of the Lok Sabha. In Assam, out of 14 seats, the Congress had won only three seats, while in Maharashtra, out of 48 seats, the Congress-NCP combine secured 6 seats. Rane, the State Industries Minister, has been nursing the ambition of becoming the Chief Minister, a dream which has not come true, ever since he switched over from the Shiv Sena to the Congress in 2005.

In Assam, Sarma met the Governor and apprised him that out of the 78 MLAs, most of them did not want to continue under the leadership of Gogoi. They are not willing to work “mentally, physically and politically,” under Gogoi.

In Haryana, similarly, it is no secret and Rao Birender Singh and Kumari Selja are up in arms against Chief Minister Hooda. Ironically, the rebellion against all the three Chief Ministers is nothing new, as the dissidents have openly lodged their complaint before the Congress High Command. At one time, Sharad Pawar-led NCP had also asked the Congress president to remove Chavan, but Sonia Gandhi refused to replace him. Similarly, the Congress leadership had turned a blind eye to the rebellion faced by Gogoi. Most of the legislators were camping in Delhi for a long time, demanding the sacking of the Chief Minister.

In Haryana, despite the banner of revolt raised by Kumari Selja and Rao Birendra Singh for a few years now, the Congress leadership has failed to take any action against the Chief Minister. Realising that under Hooda, the Congress would fare badly in the Lok Sabha, Selja had succeeded in getting herself nominated to the Rajya Sabha and did not contest the Lok Sabha elections.

The rebellion in all the three States is bound to increase, if Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi fail to quell the growing dissidence in the State.