New Delhi, June 26
Veteran party leaders are giving Congress president Sonia Gandhi a tough time.

Having barely recovered from Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh’s OBC quota bombshell, which had pitchforked both the government and the party into a controversy, Mrs. Gandhi now finds herself up against several other senior leaders.

Haryana strongman Bhajan Lal, Uttaranchal Chief Minister N.D.Tiwari, Madhya Pradesh CLP leader Jamuna Devi and senior Karnataka leader Jaffer Sharief are among those who are sulking at being ignored by the Central leadership.

While Mr. Bhajan Lal is awaiting an appointment with the Congress president to convey his unhappiness over the composition of the reconstituted Haryana PCC, veteran Karnataka leader Jaffer Sharief is so cut up with the party leadership that he has started hobnobbing with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Mr Sharief, who is arguably the Congress party’s most senior and respected Muslim face, has been upset as he has not been accommodated in the Rajya Sabha or given any senior party position. After keeping low for some time, Mr. Sharief sent out a pointed message to the Congress leadership when he shared a platform with BSP chief Mayawati in Bangalore on Sunday. At the same time, he absented himself from the Prime Minister’s official programmes in Bangalore which were attended by all state party leaders.

Haryana PCC chief Bhajan Lal is peeved that his supporters have been kept out of the recently reconstituted state unit and has been putting pressure on the leadership by holding out the threat of resigning his post. Mr. Bhajan Lal is actually upset that his son, Lok Sabha MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, who was recently issued a show-cause notice for publicly criticising the Haryana government, has not found a place in the new PCC. The AICC is, however, ignoring the father-son duo as it believes that they have limited options while their support base in the party is shrinking.

Factional battles in the party’s Madhya Pradesh unit reached the Capital last week when CLP leader Jamuna Devi met Mrs. Gandhi to formally demand the removal of PCC chief Subhash Yadav. Party insiders maintained that the veteran leader had actually spoilt her case by going public with her demand. At a time when the party is trying to emerge as a strong proponent of quotas for OBC, it can hardly afford to remove Mr. Yadav as PCC chief.