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The Rediff Interview/P R Dasmunshi

'Nobody can write us off '

A fter the electoral humiliation in the last general elections -- when the Congress won just one of the 42 parliamentary seats in Bengal -- the party made an improved showing in the panchayat polls held recently.

The persons responsible for this were Congress veteran A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury and Priya Ranjan Dashmunshi who have been just appointed the PCC chief and the state unit's working president respectively.

In an interview with Tara Shankar Sahay, Dashmunshi speaks about his plans to resuscitate the state unit. An excerpt:

The Congress in West Bengal is in dire need of a life support system. How do you plan to revitalise the moribund organisation?

Look here, you have ups and downs in politics, so kindly do not refer our state Congress as a moribund organisation. We have not performed well in the last few years but nobody can write us off. It is not for nothing that the Congress made a remarkable showing in the recent panchayat elections. This was in the face of stiff competition from the Marxist-led government of Jyoti Basu.

The Congress, which earlier enjoyed 40 per cent of the votes in the state, has slipped down the road to marginalisation, with your party winning a solitary Lok Sabha seat (Ghani Khan Chowdhury in Malda) out of the 42. So calling the state unit moribund is not impertinent.

I remember telling you that we did have problems, as the result of which we failed to perform well. Nobody is trying to hide this because it does not solve the problems. But the idea is not to mull over what happened. We are more concerned about the future, about what will happen. And we are working in that direction. That is why our party president Sonia Gandhi has brought in a new PCC chief and also appointed me as its working president. So you see, the party high command is seized of the situation in West Bengal and has initiated appropriate measures to revitalise it.

The bane of West Bengal Congress has been rampant factionalism. It is common knowledge that rival factions have been trying to pull down each other at the cost of the state unit. That was responsible for the birth of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul Congress, which resulted in the virtual wipe-out of your party in the parliamentary elections. What do you have to say?

As I said before, I am not denying that we had problems. But now I am hopeful that the problems will be sorted out to everybody's satisfaction. That is why the leadership of our state unit has been revamped.

Obviously, the Congress high command has sought to maintain a balance by appointing a PCC chief and a working president in the state unit. Does this not imply that the party high command does not trust the PCC chief Chowdhury and that is why Sonia appointed you as working president, to keep him in check. Is that not a fact?

You are free to make your own interpretations. As far as we are concerned, we have buried the past. However, important lessons have been learnt so that the mistakes we committed are avoided. The idea is not to cry over spilt milk but to stand up and work hard to face the challenge.

Chowdhury has a notoriously vituperative language, which he liberally uses against his detractors. During the last general polls, he went on record to a reporter that "even (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee's father cannot rock my boat in Malda parliamentary constituency". Can such a person really revitalise the West Bengal Congress?

I don't know what Ghani Khan Chowdhury said or did not say to the reporter you are referring to. That is of little consequence. But he is a senior Congressman and is well respected in his constituency and party circles. If he has been appointed the PCC chief then certainly the high command has sufficient trust in him.

You recently issued an appeal to all former Congress members to rejoin the party. Would the Trinamul Congress come back to the parent body?

How can I comment on this? My appeal was to those Congress members who have expressed a desire to come back to the party.

Is it a fact that Chowdhury is set against the possible re-entry of Mamata Banerjee into the Congress because of her widespread new-found popularity with the masses?

I am the wrong person to ask this question to. You better direct your question to Chowdhury himself.

Don't you think the Congress leadership's statements of overthrowing the Jyoti Basu government in West Bengal has a hollow ring to it, considering that the Marxists are continuing to make rapid strides in the state?

I don't think so. Our party leadership knows that the people in West Bengal are fed up of the Jyoti Basu government and want a change. I am not saying that tomorrow we are going to replace the Marxist government. But we have sensed the mood of the people of the state and will leave no stone unturned to meet their expectations by working unitedly and dedicatedly for our party.

The Rediff Interviews