That the exercise was open and transparent itself led to some interest in an otherwise drab atmosphere and the counting took more time than expected. The three new CPP secretaries are Suresh Pachouri, Paban Singh Ghatowar and T. Subbarami Reddy. Pachouri, a staunch 10, Janpath loyalist, bested another Sonia follower Vyalar Ravi to the post.

Pachouri got 100 and Vyalar Ravi 69. The former, who is also the Congress Seva Dal chairman, will represent the Rajya Sabha in the CPP. From the Lok Sabha came two secretaries, Ghatowar with 91 votes and Reddy with 77. Reddy's victory was a surprise as he beat Pawar's nominee Surya Kanta Patil by 12 votes.

The new CPP secretary is Raju Parmar with 117 votes. He defeated Santosh Bagrodia who managed 57votes. Parmar keeps up the Gujarati tradition of providing treasurers and he will support Ahmed Patel who is Congress treasurer.

Twenty-one executive members were also elected, 14 from the Lok Sabha and seven from the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha committee members are: Pawar loyalist P.C. Chacko with 99 votes, Panabaka Laxmi 91, Shakeel Ahmed 89, Datta Meghe 88, K.D. Sultanpuri 85, Praful Patel 84, Ranee Narah 79, Prabha Thakur 78, Sona Ram Chaudhary 71, Bhupinder Singh Hooda 70, A.C. Jose 69, former Goa Chief Minister Ravi Naik 68, B.N. Reddy 56 and Ravi Mallu 52.

Pawar's quota includes P.C. Chacko, Datta Meghe, Praful Patel and Prabha Thakur, showing that his clout hasn't waned despite the lower profile of the CPP in Congress equations ever since Sonia Gandhi took over as party president.

The Andhra Pradesh contingent has also put in a solid showing with four of them getting elected, one CPP secretary and three Lok Sabha executive members: Subbarami Reddy, P. Laxmi, B.N. Reddy and Ravi Mallu.

Theseven Rajya Sabha executive members are: Mabel Rebello, a Sonia loyalist, with 47 votes, Akilesh Das 43, Govindrao Adik, a Pawar-baiter, 42, K. Rehman Khan 41, Ramji Lal 40, John Fernandes 38 and K. Bhattacharjee 37. The big loser here was Kapil Sibal with 32 votes who didn't make it along with Khan Gufran Zahidi, a Jitendra Prasada loyalist, and K.M. Khan.

In all there are four women, four Christians, three Muslims and four Other Backward Classes in the CPP executive, reflecting the party's new stand of adequate representation to these sections of society. However, these results are from an election and not nomination, which is the crucial change from the elections in past several years.