Corruption issue which has damaged the credibility of two national parties and some of their allies, could dominate a three-day AICC plenary session to be held in Delhi the third week of December.
The session is being held against the backdrop of the Congress’ Waterloo in the Bihar Assembly polls and ahead of a electoral battle in five states that includes Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry.
If the Congress had to remove Ashok Chavan because of the Adharsh Housing Scam in Mumbai, it replaced K. Rosaiah from Andhra Pradesh chief ministership on the grounds of his “performance”. Besides, various investigating agencies and a two member committee is probing the mess up in the Commonweath Games in which the role of its senior Union ministers and Delhi chief minister is in question.
On the other hand, main Opposition BJP has not been able to decide how to get rid of Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in the alleged illegal allotments and denotification of land.
And the 2G spectrum issue has already put the Centre in the dock. It will be interesting to see how the Congress will take a call on the corruption issue in its plenary session against the backdrop of these developments.
The Congress is not keen on fighting elections under a coalition banner. It had fought the Bihar polls on its own despite the party lacks cadre and the organisation and will contest UP, Punjab and perhaps Assam elections on its own.
But in TN, West Bengal and Kerala it will have to ally with other parties. DMK chief and TN CM M. Karunanidhi has asked the Congress leadership to prevent “mischievous” Congress leaders from making attempts to disrupt the alliance between the two parties.