CWC ropes in Sonia to hang Kesri

NEW DELHI, March 5: Moves to oust Sitaram Kesri from the Congress presidency took a formal note today when the Congress Working Committee (C...

int(2)

NEW DELHI, March 5: Moves to oust Sitaram Kesri from the Congress presidency took a formal note today when the Congress Working Committee (CWC) passed a resolution practically asking Sonia Gandhi to take control of the organisation and select the CPP leader to ensure "total unity" in the party.

The resolution is believed to be the result of hectic lobbying by the Sharad Pawar camp to change the leadership as a prelude to its efforts to form the government. A second resolution was also passed in which the party said it was willing to play a "constructive role" in the formation of a secular and stable government. There was no mention of the Congress leading the government in today’s resolution.

The Sonia resolution, whose wording took hours of parleying before the CWC meeting began, was firmly pushed by Sharad Pawar, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jitendra Prasada, A K Antony, Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh and K Karunakaran who were special invitees to themeeting.

Story continues below this ad

The meeting was full of praises for Sonia and once Pawar set the ball rolling, even pro-Kesri members like R K Dhawan were forced to laud Sonia’s efforts. In fact, the `praise Sonia’ mood totally dominated the meeting and nothing much was said on efforts to form a government. It amounts to a victory of sorts for the Pawar group which believes that a change in the party presidency would take care of Pawar’s main rival Sitaram Kesri.

Once this is achieved, this group feels, Pawar can hope to get Sonia’s backing as a possible prime ministerial candidate or at least as CPP leader. However, efforts to remove Kesri could be long-drawn and the CWC is slated to meet at least once informally every day for some time. Since Sonia Gandhi is a leader no one in the party can attack, almost all groups and sub-groups seem to be singing her praises.

Even the line-up of speakers in today’s meeting reflected the anti and pro Kesri feelings in the party. For example, Pawar, Digvijay Singh, Ahmed Patel, ManmohanSingh, Karunakaran and Ghulam Nabi Azad all spoke only of Sonia.

Thus came the single line in the second resolution recording the contribution of "party president Sitaram Kesri in leading the campaign for the party".

Story continues below this ad

But all speakers today attributed the party’s increase in its Lok Sabha tally to Sonia’s efforts and paid little attention to Kesri.

The Congress president himself stuck to the routine opening remarks and spoke of the party’s resource crunch despite which they managed to hold on. Kesri’s low key presence in the meeting tonight was apparently after 10, Janpath voiced displeasure at his attempts to take credit for the Congress showing and retain his post. Currently the party is in the midst of an intense power struggle which, several Congress leaders feel, can only be stemmed if Sonia takes formal charge of the party.

The resolution, which was handed over to Sonia at 10, Janpath by Digvijay Singh and Jitendra Prasada midway through the CWC meeting, reflected this feeling.

It said: "TheCWC requests Smt Sonia Gandhi to help the party arrive at a consensus on the choice of the CPP leader in order to ensure total unity in the party. The CWC looks forward to a more direct, enlarged and meaningful role to be played by her in the larger interest of the country and the Congress."

Story continues below this ad

"The CWC is aware of the assurance given by Sonia Gandhi to the people of India, and the Congress workers in particular, that she will continue to take active interest in the affairs of the party. In fact, it was her tireless and strenuous campaigning throughout the length and breadth of the country which galvanised all Congress workers to join the election campaign and the Congress party owes its electoral gains to her alone."

This is being seen as the first step of a long battle to oust Kesri.

BJD to join BJP-led govt; PMK, HLD won’t

With the numbers for an absolute majority still eluding it, the BJP today changed tack and began speaking of a “working majority” in the Lok Sabha, an arrangement bywhich P V Narasimha Rao ran his government for three years.

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has decided to join a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre. A decision to this effect was taken at an informal meeting of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the party held here on Wednesday. BJD president Naveen Patnaik and chairman of the PAC, Bijay Mahapatra attended the meeting.

PMK founder-leader Dr S Ramdoss said that his party would not join a BJP government at the Centre but would extend outside support. Speaking to media persons in Chennai today, he said AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha has already announced her party’s stand and the PMK, being an ally, was toeing the AIADMK line.

The Haryana Lok Dal (HLD) leader Om Prakash Chautala today said that his party has decided to support BJP from outside. In an informal meeting with newspersons, Chautala said that there was no question of joining the government but his party was committed to support a Atal Behari Vajpayee-ledgovernment as they have no option.