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How Congress back room team is stepping up offensive
It’s a busy day at an otherwise quiet bungalow of Lutyen’s Delhi. The Congress’ chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala; the party’s ace legal brain, Abhishek Singhvi; party treasurer Ahmed Patel and a few others have gone into a huddle to decide on a bunch of complaints from across the nation.
It’s a busy day at an otherwise quiet bungalow of Lutyen’s Delhi. The Congress’ chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala; the party’s ace legal brain, Abhishek Singhvi; party treasurer Ahmed Patel and a few others have gone into a huddle to decide on a bunch of complaints from across the nation.
The previous day, more than a hundred poll related complaints kept fax lines and WhatsApp numbers busy at the Congress’ co-ordination cell, comprising lawyers, senior leaders and functionaries, in the party’s new nerve centre at 80 Lodhi Estate.
The allegations range from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks against Congress president Rahul Gandhi to grass root-level skirmishes.
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At the cell, a small group of party functionaries sifts through the materials, and only a few important ones are brought to the notice of the informal group of senior leaders. The result: 40 complaints to the Election Commission (EC) in a month and two writ petitions in the Supreme Court. “We only take up complaints which have a national significance,” said Singhvi, who frequently represents the Congress at EC and the Supreme Court. “The remaining cases are sent back to the states for appropriate action at the local level.”
As the poll campaign intensified, the Congress stepped up its legal offensive. For the first time in recent history, the party knocked the Supreme Court’s doors to prod the poll panel to decide on complaints against PM Modi and against the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Amit Shah, for what the Congress said were violations of the model code of conduct. Senior Congress leaders say it was a party delegation that told EC mere warnings or censures would be meaningless unless a candidate was temporarily banned from campaigning for flouting rules.
Acting on their appeal, EC barred bigwigs such as Union minister Maneka Gandhi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for 72 hours from campaigning. But the Congress’ efforts to seek such actions against PM Modi and Shah have so far not been successful.
The Congress also has a small group of young lawyers, including Aman Pawar, who sought a delay in the release of a biopic of Modi that stars actor Vivek Oberoi. the poll watchdog ruled recently that it will not release during the elections. The movie will now release on May 24. a day after the declaration of the results. Singhvi describes the group as “young, energetic, politically inclined lawyers.”
One of them, Varun Chopra, said the process of picking subjects involves “long strategy sessions”. “There are young lawyers and senior ones. We may have some views while they have rich experience. Ultimately, we look at the possible impact of the alleged conduct and take a call.”
Chopra said a structured strategy about how to take up the matter before EC is also discussed.
When matters related to party president Gandhi are on the table, either Kanishk Singh or K Raju —two of his close aides — are involved in the consultations to finalise the strategy. During one such meeting, the leaders delved into the case filed by BJP parliamentarian Meenakshi Lekhi against Gandhi.
Lekhi had asked the Supreme Court to initiate criminal contempt action against Gandhi for having twisted the top court’s April 10 judgment to claim that the court declared Prime Minister guilty of corrupt practices in purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft.
Lekhi said Gandhi had incorrectly attributed his political slogan, ‘chowkidar chor hai’ (The watchman is a thief), to the judges. The Congress president is expected to file a third affidavit in the court on Monday, apologising for his words.
The group also decides on the replies to notices served by EC or the Supreme Court.
The party, of late, has also included strategist Jairam Ramesh in some of its delegations to EC. While Singhvi holds the forte with solid legal arguments — often laced with humour — Surjewala and Ramesh often supplements Singhvi by underlining political points to EC.
A senior leader pointed out that before the third phase of polling got over on April 23, several complaints from different states had landed at the co-ordination cell. “Now, polling in 69% of the seats are over after four phases. Naturally, the number of complaints from our candidates and state units has also reduced,” the party leader said.
