Pawar, Sangma, Anwar expelled for six years

NEW DELHI, MAY 20: In a decision with widespread ramifications, the Congress today expelled rebel leaders Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Ta...

NEW DELHI, MAY 20: In a decision with widespread ramifications, the Congress today expelled rebel leaders Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar for six years. The decision, announced by senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee, was taken at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, from which Sonia Gandhi, who has resigned from the presidentship, and the three rebels stayed away.

Interestingly, Pranab Mukherjee gave the indication that the decision was a majority one, not unanimous. “It was a overwhelming majority decision,” he said in reply to a question whether the CWC was unanimous. “The decision was taken in the same way as it is taken in a corporate body,” he Mukherjee said without elaborating.

Earlier in the day, the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), headed by Sonia loyalist Prataprao Bhosale sacked four pro-Pawar district chiefs and dissolved their committees, including two in Pune district. New chiefs were simultaneously named.

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Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from the MPCC headquarters in Mumbai, state Congress secretary Jayprakash Chhajed said the action against the Pune Rural, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kolhapur City and Kolhapur Rural district Congress committees followed directions received from the All-India Congress Committee (AICC).

Congress sources pointed out that all the four committees which have been dissolved had not passed resolutions reposing trust in party president Sonia Gandhi.

“Alright. This seems to be the beginning,” was how Pawar reacted when one of the dismissed district Congress chiefs telephoned him while he was in the midst of a seminar on biotechnology he had organised in the city.

As the CWC went into session this evening to consider disciplinary action against the three, there was still no clear picture as to whether Sonia would take back her decision on resigning as party president.

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The meeting began at 7.30 p.m. amid unprecedented scenes at the party headquarters where emotional party workers mobbed CWC members as they filed in. Hysterical cadres kept up their vociferous demand for expulsion of the three “back-stabbers” throughout the day, even as their leaders made vain bids to pacify them.

The worst off was Sonia’s predecessor Sitaram Kesri. Angry party workers accused him of provoking the rebel trio to revolt against Sonia; they stopped his car and began thumping the vehicle with their fists, damaging it. Kesri had to make his way through to the meeting from the back door.

There was steady sloganeering in front of the AICC office in the Capital as well, and a touch of comic drama when former MLA Prem Pal Samarth climbed up a tree just outside the gate to Gandhi’s residence and threatened to jump if she did not withdraw her resignation. He was later joined in by a 16-year-old youth. After four hours of stay atop the tree, the two came down when police, equipped with fire tenders, threatened to arrest them.

Hundreds of children, mostly in the age group of three to five years sat around bonfires and raised slogans urging the Congress President to review her decision.

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Similar scenes were witnessed elsewhere in the country. Three Youth Congress workers in Andhra Pradesh attempted suicide by strangulating themselves while the indefinite fast launched by the women’s wing of the party entered the third day at the party headquarters in Hyderabad. The fasting workers were removed to a hospital.

Effigies of the dissenting trio were burnt at various places with angry demands for their immediate expulsion from the party.

Meanwhile, Sonia cancelled all her engagements for tomorrow, the death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, save her visit to “Veer Bhoomi” in the morning to pay homage to her husband. She was originally scheduled to deliver the Rajiv Gandhi memorial lecture, address a function organised by the National Students’ Union of India, the party’s student wing, and speak to Congress at Talkatora stadium.

Party spokesman Ajit Jogi gave no reason for the cancellation of her schedule tomorrow. It was widely believed that at these meetings she would give some indication of whether or not she would take back her resignation from the post of Congress chief.

4 district chiefs sacked

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PUNE: The Congress in western Maharashtra, stronghold of rebel leader Sharad Pawar, is heading for a split after the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), headed by Sonia loyalist Prataprao Bhosale, sacked four pro-Pawar district chiefs and dissolved their committees, and dissolved their committees, including two in Pune district, on Thursday.

Their dismissal came in the form of a two para facsimile message from MPCC chief Prataprao Bhosale. The message to the Pune rural, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Kolhapur city and Kolhapur rural district Congress committee presidents simply stated that their committees stood dissolved and that they were to hand over charge immediately to persons named by the MPCC.

The new chiefs are corporator Hanumant Gawade for Pimpri-Chinchwad, former Zilla Parishad member Devidas Bhansali for Pune rural, Mahadev Adagule for Kolhapur city and P N Patil Sadolikar for Kolhapur rural.