The Congress announced last week Rahul and Priyanka are primary members of the party. When did this happen? Where? That will be left for the next episode. Perhaps to keep the audience hooked.

But in the same breath party spokespersons of all hue were at pains to explain that primary membership did not necessarily mean being active politics.

?Lakhs of people take primary membership. By doing so Rahul and Priyanka have merely identified themselves with the party?s ideology,? senior leader Ambika Soni said.

Which Soni, pointed out, they already had done by campaigning for their mother; Priyanka by looking after Sonia Gandhi?s electoral affairs in Amethi and Bellary in the last elections; Rahul by telling people he had been visiting Amethi for years.

The Congresswoman also stressed that the two ? at present touring their mother?s constituency Amethi and neighbouring Rae Bareli ? had made clear that they were campaigning under no pressure and when ?they feel in their hearts that they should join active politics, they will.?

Not that the two have been very inactive over the last two days, sparring good-naturedly with the media on whether either one or both will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections. Even as they tell the voters not to vote for the BJP. Meanwhile, a party waits in hope.

Either no one outside of the Gandhi triumvirate has a clue and so hapless Congressmen keep shooting in the dark, or the party wants to play a game of striptease knowing this is its last big act.

?Congress is worried. They do not have a leader. They are now looking to children,? Naidu said, without naming Priyanka and Rahul.

Since the December debacle in three states the clamour for the Gandhi children, particularly Priyanka, in active politics has reached a crescendo. But mother Sonia is said to favour a more active role for Rahul. The presence of both will be a shot in arm, especially in crucial Uttar Pradesh, where the party has been all but wiped out.

So while everyone holds his breath waiting for the big announcement, Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said that the two were primary members of the party after all.

For the lesser beings this would involve a ritual of sorts. But Sharma clammed up on where and when the two had joined the party, promising that for later. All he would say was: ?Historically, they are in the party and technically, yes, they are primary members.?

That would actually follow well from another spokesman Abhishek Singhvi?s statement just the day before: ?They are members of the Congress from birth.?

Loyal Congressmen refuse to discuss terms like ?dynastic rule?. Merely that this is the fifth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi family to serve the party. The guessing game on what capacity the GenNext Gandhis intend to serve this year goes on.

Meanwhile, BJP President Venkaiah Naidu has a dig at the Congress for ?looking to? Priyanka Vadra and Rahul Gandhi, saying the main Opposition party was worried that it did not have a leader.

?Congress is worried. They do not have a leader. They are now looking to children,? Naidu said, without naming Priyanka and Rahul .

?We can understand their plight. Anyway, we wish them the best of luck,? he said, as he launched BJP?s ?Atal Sandesh Abhiyan? to create awareness about the Vajpayee government?s achievements.

The question, he said, was ?who can lead the country and who can bring prosperity?.

Lashing out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi for attacking the ?India Shining? message, Naidu said she should go to the people to realise that they were happy. ?You (Sonia) are not happy but India is happy?.

Sonia had attacked the NDA government?s ?India Shining? media blitz at a Panchayat Raj convention in Karnataka?s Dharwad district last Thursday, accusing it of misleading the masses.

?Those who have a vision and foresight can see development,? Naidu said. India is shining and there is a ?feel good factor? but for Gandhi, it is a ?feel bad factor,? he said.

Naidu recounted the achievements of the Vajpayee government in different spheres including building highways, telecom, farm sector and infrastructure development.

Asserting that Vajpayee was the most popular Prime Minister since independence, Naidu asked Congress and its allies as to who their leader was. ?They are not able to tell the name?.

He said Lok Sabha elections in April were ?certain? and there were indicators of Assembly elections in Karnataka also taking place in tandem.

The next elections, he said, were very ?important? as they would change the course of Indian politics. ?If you want to stop development and want to create obstacles, go to Congress. If you want to take the country forward, go with Vajpayee,? he said.

Former Congress Lok Sabha member and son-in-law of late chief minister Veerandra Patil, B G Javali, and former MLA Guruprasad joined the BJP in the presence of Naidu.

Naidu said the ?BJP wave? was getting revived in Karnataka and the party would ?bid? for power in the state.

Welcoming the new entrants, he said the BJP?s doors were open to all those who were ?likeminded? and accepted the leadership of Vajpayee.

Nilangala BHADURI JHA

Source : Times of India