'Firebrand' gears up for fending off CHP leader

Muharrem Ince, an outspoken MP in the opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, has stepped up his efforts to push the party's leader, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, to quit after the party suffered a crushing defeat in the recent presidential elections.

Ince, the deputy chair of the party's parliamentary group, has engaged in a shuttle diplomacy mission between the party's hawkish politicians, Deniz Baykal and Önder Sav, in order to call for a congress to elect a new leader, who will replace the incumbent, according to sources close to the dissidents.

Ince has also exchanged views on the congress with Emine Ülker Tarhan, a prominent MP, currently backed by the ultra-nationalist wing as Kiliçdaroglu's successor. The deputy chair is expected to speak in person and on the phone to all of the party's provincial chairs as of next week amid some increasing claims that Ince could declare his candidacy ahead of the congress.

The dissidents need at least 585 signatures, which means more than half of the number of the delegates, to hold the party congress.

Meanwhile, Kiliçdaroglu has taken an unexpected step declaring the party will hold the congress in September, - a sudden move aiming to crush the hawkish wing's campaign. The party leader's decision comes after recent reports which said the dissidents failed to receive a response, that they had expected to have in 19 provinces over the bid to smash the incumbent's position.

The CHP leader said he will no longer tolerate intra-party debates. 'I have tolerated the debates in the party so far, but this move will come to the end after the party's congress. There is no unlimited independence,' said Kiliçdaroglu, in his interview to the Daily Milliyet on Friday. 'CHP is a liberal party, but the borders of independence have designed the party's rules and regulations as well as its traditions,' he said.

According to sources close to Kiliçdaroglu, the party chief first wanted to see power of his rivals over the party before deciding his response. 'As the opposition group including Baykal has failed to collect the signatures, required to call for the congress, he has taken a step forward and called for the congress,' said one of his close aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The aide also said CHP deputies seem to be confused about which side they should come down on before the congress. 'Ince does not have a strong influence over the deputies, but heavy defeats which the party suffered in two subsequent elections have triggered chaos in the party. So, they will test the power of both sides to make their last decision before the congress,' he said.

Fifty veteran CHP deputies on Friday called on Kiliçdaroglu to resign from his position in a joint declaration, while nine MPs have read the declaration calling on the party chief to pay for what he has done.

At a joint press conference in the Parliament , the hard-core secularists said in a joint declaration that a candidate with Islamist credentials has led to a great disappointment in the society that believes in Ataturk's principles and revolutionaries.

'Nothing would have been as wrong as choosing one candidate with Islamist political views as the leader of the country as (a description of) what makes the party, and who is its model which is based on the principles of democracy, the republic and secularism,' said the joint declaration.

'We expect a leader, who will redesign the party in lines with its essential principles that makes who it is and will bring a victory to the party in the next elections,' it said.