PUNE, Dec 29: Former Union minister Suresh Kalmadi, who resigned from the Congress three days back, publicly admitted on Sunday that he had led the 36 Congress MPs who were ready to extend support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during the recent political crisis in Delhi.Addressing an impressive meeting of his supporters at the Pune railway station, Kalmadi, who arrived in the city for the first time after he quit the Congress, said that he had opposed All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sitaram Kesri's proposal to withdraw support to the Gujral Government over the Jain Commission report.
Kalmadi said he had confronted Kesri over the issue as he and several other Lok Sabha members were not in favour of dissolution of the Lok Sabha.
``My party colleagues and I were not in favour of withdrawal of support as we did not want general elections within the short span of two years,'' he said, and added that an election was bound to affect the country's economy.
Kalmadi's admission assumes
significance as he had vehemently denied that he was hobnobbing with the BJP earlier. He had also claimed at a press conference in the city that AICC president Sitaram Kesri had given him the green signal for contesting the election.
Launching a scathing attack on Kesri, Kalmadi said that the AICC president withdrew support to the United Front Government twice in two years because he wanted to become the prime minister. ``The country witnessed the collapse of two governments because of one person,'' he said. Kalmadi said Kesri should have sent a letter to the United Front, asking them to replace Deve Gowda. ``There was no need to withdraw support to the Government,'' he added.Kalmadi said that the Congress had now taken a stand that the Jain Commission report was not an election issue, after pulling down the Gujral Government on the basis of the Commission report.
He sarcastically added that Mahatma Gandhi's wish to dissolve the Congress would be fulfilled while Kesri was the president of the
party.
Kalmadi went on to say that he won the last Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate because Pune electorates voted for a candidate and not for a party. He said his victory was significant as the political atmosphere in the state was then not in favour of the Congress.
Officially announcing the setting up of `Pune Vikas Aghadi', he expressed the hope that the voters in Pune would give him another opportunity to work for them.
Referring to the civic problems which he had tried to solve in the last two years, Kalmadi said that he had given top priority to drinking water shortage and improvement of slums. He said he would try to invite big industrial units to set up their plants in Pune so that local youth would get employment.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
