NEW DELHI, March 10: Congress affairs plunged into familiar chaos today at the crucial Congress Working Committtee meeting with a sulking party president Sitaram Kesri refusing to formally put in his papers as sought by party leaders.In his last hours as president, Kesri is trying to bargain, desperate as he is to stay on in the CWC, at least as a nominated member. Taken aback by this unexpected stand, 10, Janpath went into a huddle and decided to allow Kesri a couple of days to cool off before he submits his resignation.
The official part of the CWC meeting ended in eight minutes, the shortest ever, in which the party decided to hold its Congress Parliamentary Party meeting to elect the leader on March 14. But the unofficial part had all the drama with Kesri storming out the moment Sharad Pawar and Jitendra Prasada raised the issue of his resignation.
Kesri sulked in his room and a string of CWC leaders went in, one by one, to cajole him. Kesri was at his irritating best, lashing out at most memberson sundry issues and reserving to himself the right to resign when he wishes after announcing his decision to quit yesterday.
Apparently, Kesri is keen to retain the CPP leadership failing which he can at least be a nominated CWC member. Once a party president resigns, the nominated members of the CWC cease to hold their positions and the new president nominates members in a fresh manner. Thus, only the elected 10 members will stay put while seven others will make way. Kesri is bargaining to get in as one of the nominated members once the exercise of choosing the next president is complete.
Aware that his bargaining powers were limited to last hours as president, an adamant Kesri refused to heed the desperate pleas of fellow leaders. First to try his hand was Manmohan Singh who spent 20 minutes with Kesri but came back empty handed. ``Kesri is trying to create such confusion that Sonia Gandhi would be disgusted and refuse to take the leadership,'' a CWC member said on the condition of anonymity.
Singhwas followed by Ahmed Patel who had spent the better part of the day persuading other CWC members to pass a one-line resolution asking Sonia to formally become party president. Patel failed too and after a few tense minutes, returned with A K Antony and Madhavrao Scindia. This trio was the last to arrive for the CWC meeting after a long stay at 10, Janpath but Kesri simply sent them packing.
The next two to face Kesri's lashing were Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jitendra Prasada, separately. Kesri is believed to have raised several issues which upset him and held both guilty of ``disrespecting'' him and ``plotting'' against him. Azad had a tough time as Kesri took personal affront at his manoeuvrings of the last few days. All this took more than an hour. While the action was taking place in Kesri's room, the rest of the CWC quietly proposed former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma's name as the Congress candidate for the Speaker's post this time too and constituted a four-member sub-committee including Pawar, Scindia,Prasada and Pranab Mukherjee to hold talks with the United Front on the future course of action.
Kesri kept his anger aside for a brief while and ratified these two decisions.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
