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Sonia may pass up Swamy's tea party

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy today again tried to persuade Congress president Sonia Gandhi to attend his tea party on Monday, March 29, for which he has sent out more than 100 invitations, including to American Ambassador Richard Celeste.

But though Swamy has been at his persuasive best, Congress sources told Rediff On The NeT that Gandhi is unlikely to attend the function, for it will send out a "wrong signal" that the Congress is trying to pull down the coalition government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Significantly, a meeting of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, which Sonia Gandhi heads, has been fixed for March 29 at the same time that Dr Swamy's tea party is scheduled to take place.

While a section of the Congress wants Gandhi and her senior colleagues in the party to partake of Dr Swamy's hospitality at the Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi, the majority has warned her that her presence there could be misconstrued and lead to an adverse reaction.

That is why Congress general secretary Madhavrao Scindia yesterday declared that his party is not interested in destabilising the government in any way.

With Gandhi likely to skip the tea party, the BJP is going all out to drive home its political advantage. Party vice-president Krishan Lal Sharma told reporters he and another vice-president, K Jana Krishnamurthy, went to Delhi airport today to receive AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha.

He also pointed out with some satisfaction that Jayalalitha would be attending the meeting of the ruling coalition's co-ordination committee, scheduled to be held at 3pm at Vajpayee's residence tomorrow. Still better, she will call on Vajpayee at his residence for a one-to-one meeting on Monday, March 29, the day Dr Swamy's party is to be held.

BJP officials, meanwhile, claimed that barring Chandra Shekhar -- who, they quipped, has a lot of time to spare -- none of the other former prime ministers -- V P Singh, I K Gujral, H D Deve Gowda and P V Narasimha Rao -- is likely to attend Dr Swamy's party.

Significantly, BJP MP Vijay Goel later met Jayalalitha to invite her to his tea party at 6.30pm tomorrow.

Goel's party is an obvious attempt to pre-empt Dr Swamy. Moreover, BJP politicians are expected to be present in strength, and party officials said they would all join in the attempt to mollycoddle the AIADMK chief.

Still, there's a level of anxiety in the BJP about Jayalalitha's visit. The party will be closely monitoring the developments on Sunday, March 28, when Jayalalitha is scheduled to have one-to-one meetings with leaders of various political parties and then address a press conference.

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