Congress whip's ouster demanded

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 7.

The mismanagement and lack of coordination on the floor of the House during the recent session of the Delhi Assembly, which put the ruling Congress(I) in an embarrassing situation, has led to demands for ouster of the present chief whip of the party, Mr. Mangat Ram Singhal, from the post.

Earlier, only dissident MLAs spoke against Mr. Singhal but now even some loyalist MLAs have joined the chorus for his removal stating that the party and the Chief Minister, Ms. Sheila Dixit, had been put in an embarrassing situation on more than one occasion due to the inefficiency of the chief whip. The joke doing the rounds in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) is that Mr. Singhal is only good at organising ``official CLP lunches'' and has no control over MLAs who dictate terms to him inside and outside the Vidhan Sabha.

It is learnt that the Chief Minister too is not happy with the performance of Mr. Singhal and is reported to have pulled him up for faltering on a number of issues. In fact, during the proceedings inside the House, it was left to the Parliamentary Secretary, Mr. Ajay Maken, and some senior MLAs to bring about coordination among members and ensure proper quorum in the House. Mr. Singhal failed miserably to mobilise the members despite a three-line whip.

Mr. Singhal was also squarely responsible for creating problems and generating controversies where it could have been avoided. On the opening day of the session when the House was adjourned and it was decided to proceed to Prime Minister's house for submitting a memorandum on closure of industries, Mr. Singhal failed to inform a large number of MLAs of the change in time. This resulted in half the MLAs reaching the venue ahead of time thereby putting up a divided show.

Similarly, it was decided that on each day of the session, one Minister each will give lunch to the CLP and informally discuss the strategy to be adopted in the House. However, Mr. Singhal committed a faux paus when he went ahead and informed half the MLAs that an official CLP meeting was being held at Old Secretariat on November 22 when no such meeting had been called by the Chief Minister. Mr. Singhal had to cut a sorry figure when half the MLAs reached the venue of the CLP meeting next day to find the gates locked. Later, the Power Minister, Dr. Narendra Nath, and Mr. Singhal had to apologise for the error.

Even inside the House, members were always either roughing up Mr. Singhal or shouting at him for not including their names for speaking on various debates and discussions. Even the Speaker, Chaudhary Prem Singh, remarked at one stage that the chief whip of the ruling party was not doing his job in an effective manner and needed to pull up his socks to avoid disputes inside the House. In addition to this, clear mismanagement was evident when Mr. Singhal was not able to control his members from disrupting the proceedings of the House on more than one occasion. It was left to Mr. Maken to go around and inform the members about the strategy to be adopted on a particular issue against the opposition.

The ruling party MLAs feel they need someone who is effective and can control the MLAs to not only ensure their presence in the House but also stay one step ahead of the Opposition in chalking out a strategy.

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