Kesri rewards Prasada with deputy’s post

It is quite clearly a reward for Prasada’s efforts at ensuring Kesri’s victory in the party polls last week. Prasada was instrumental in getting more than 1,000 votes for Kesri from Uttar Pradesh, a fact duly acknowledged by the party chief.

Indications are that Prasada may be replaced as UPCC chief, as holding two posts of this nature would mean more work than one can handle. Curiously though, Kesri’s first step as party president follows what his predecessor P V Narasimha Rao did in his time. Rao had made Prasada his political advisor before sending him to Uttar Pradesh as the State unit chief.

Before this, Prasada was also advisor to Rajiv Gandhi. He, thus, completes a hat-trick of sorts. By taking this step, Kesri is apparently sending more than one signal to fellow leaders. Firstly, Prasada is definitely anti-Pawar, which means that the clout of the Pawar camp will be reduced.

Secondly, Prasada is also an avid opponent of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, meaning that Kesri is putting a price on his friendship with Mulayam.

Again, Prasada’s elevation could spell trouble for N D Tiwari, who recently returned to the Congress with Arjun Singh. There can only be one high-profile leader from Uttar Pradesh and Kesri has opted for Prasada.

Prasada was one of Kesri’s trusted five who negotiated with the United Front (UF) during the three-week political crisis after Kesri pulled the Gowda Government down. The other four were A K Antony, Sharad Pawar, J B Patnaik and Madhavrao Scindia, and a majority of these leaders could land up important positions in the Congress soon.

There are three immediate ways Kesri can placate his senior party colleagues. A place is on offer in three panels: The co-ordination team to deal with the UF, the posts of six or more general secretaries in the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and 10 nominations to the all-powerful Congress Working Committee (CWC).

Around 25 people can thus be accommodated straight away and the Congress chief is likely to begin the exercise in a few days.

Kesri has also initiated moves to formally have a co-ordination team of the Congress and the UF, which will have a say in the Centre’s policy making. Initially, the team was to have been 10-member strong with five each from both sides, but Kesri said today he was in favour of this being expanded.

The Congress may thus have around seven to eight people in the panel and the UF is likely to respond with a similar number.

This is a shift in Kesri’s stance. And, clearly, the Congress head is moving from his earlier rigidity to some sort of flexibility. Kesri had in April refused to have such a co-ordination panel, saying he would deal on a one-to-one basis with Prime Minister I K Gujral. But after meeting Gujral today, Kesri decided in favour of a team to help him. Today, Kesri reiterated that Congress support to the Gujral Government would continue and there should not be any fears on this score. “General elections are not in sight,” he added.

His dislike for Gowda was on show again, when he ridiculed the latter’s statement that fresh elections would be held in 1997. “Deve Gowda’s reading is just like his assertion before his resignation as Prime Minister that he would stand like a rock,” he said.

A set of fresh guidelines for the Youth Congress (YC) is in the offing with a lowering of age limit as the first step in reviving the much-maligned organisation. On paper, nobody who is 35 years or more in age can hold any YC post, but this has been ignored in the past. Kesri wants to slash this by about five years and set a limit of around 30.