Dissident MLA's interview flayed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 5.

The Congress(I) high command is learnt to have taken a ``serious note'' of an interview given by the senior dissident leader and Ashok Vihar MLA, Mr. Deep Chand Bandhu, to the RSS mouthpiece ``Organiser'' in which he has criticised the working of the Chief Minister, Ms. Sheila Dixit, and her Government.

The decision of Mr. Bandhu to utilise the RSS platform for airing grievances has not only embarrassed the leadership, but also put his supporters and senior disgruntled leaders in the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee(I) in a spot.

This has given credence to reports which were doing rounds that some dissident leaders were in close touch with leaders of BJP and other parties which had broken away from the Congress(I). Mr. Bandhu was quick to deny that he had given any such interview. He asserted that he had not made any statement against the Chief Minister or the functioning of the Government.

The interview of Mr. Bandhu has been played up by the Organiser. In fact, the views of the BJP leader and Krishna Nagar MLA, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, have been relegated in view of Mr. Bandhu's outburst. There were red faces in the Congress today as they found it difficult to justify Mr. Bandhu using the Sangh Parivar platform to vent his feelings.

It is understood that senior leaders have not taken kindly to Mr. Bandhu's action at a time when the Congress was waging a war against the communal forces.

It is learnt the leadership is likely to seek an explanation from Mr. Bandhu. The AICC(I) general secretary incharge Delhi, Ms. Prabha Rau, is away to Nagpur and is likely to return tonight and take stock of the situation.

Not to miss an opportunity, the loyalists have decided to take up this ``RSS connection'' issue with the Central leaders. The loyalist MLAs have decided to meet Ms. Rau and other general secretaries to apprise them about the dissidents.

The loyalists are hammering in their earlier charge of some dissident leaders having links with the BJP. A senior loyalist MLA said he had suspected throughout the Assembly session that the dissidents were raising contentious issues to embarrass the Delhi Government in close coordination with the BJP. It is no secret that certain dissident leaders had in the past threatened to split the party or even form an alternate Government if their demand for removal of Ms. Dixit was not met.

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