LUCKNOW, Nov 22: After Naresh Agarwal's abortive bid to dislodge Pramod Tiwari from the Congress Legislature Party leadership, it is now senior Congress leader Ammar Rizvi's turn to take a shot at the coveted post in Uttar Pradesh.While Agarwal, disappointed after a protracted battle with Tiwari, opted for greener pastures - with the Bharatiya Janata Party forming the 22-member Loktantrik Congress on October 20 - Rizvi's idea is to stay in the party and oust Tiwari from the post of CLP leader.Over a dozen Congress MLAs of the 15-member CLP questioned Tiwari's leadership skills at a dinner meeting at Rizvi's residence yesterday. Subsequently, Rizvi wrote to Tiwari demanding an immediate CLP meeting to discuss ``reasons and causes of the split in the CLP''.In an apparent effort to strike when the iron is hot, Rizvi has forwarded copies of his letter to Tiwari to AICC president Sitaram Kesri, AICC vice-president Jitendra Prasada and UPCC chief Narain Dutt Tewari. He has urged N D Tewari to convene a separate meeting of CLP members to hear their grievances.Rizvi, while admitting that he wrote the letter, refused to divulge its contents. Asked why he wanted to rock the Congress's boat which was already caught in a political turmoil at the Centre, Rizvi asked, ``If a political tornado was affecting large ships, could it spare the smaller boats?''.Pramod Tiwari however appears to be in no mood to oblige Rizvi since he rejected the demand for a CLP meeting. ``The meeting will be convened as and when the need arises,'' he declared.In his letter to Pramod Tiwari, Rizvi has also sought to discuss the steps taken by the CLP leader to prevent the split when he was ``well aware of such a move brewing in his backyard''.Besides, Rizvi has demanded to know why the CLP leader was unconcerned about the role of the remaining 15 Congress MLAs who chose to remain behind and also why no attention was paid to party MLAs, including senior leader Surendra Nath Awasthi, injured in the violence in the Assembly on October 21.According to state Congress sources, the only absentees at yesterday's meeting at Rizvi's residence were Pramod Tiwari himself and Vijay Prakash from Allahabad. The Congress rebels claimed to enjoy the support of the majority of MLCs as well.
