Congress president Sita Ram Kesri at an all-India tribal meet in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI, May 11: The detractors of Sitaram Kesri have failed to find a person to contest against him for the post of the Congress president with former Maharashtra chief minister A R Antulay bowing out of race and other senior leaders deciding to play safe rather than enter the fray for the June 9 party polls.

Although Antulay called Kesri a ``dictator'' in an interview to a private channel and K Karunakaran, a former Kerala Chief Minister, harped on the ``one-man one-post'' slogan from Thrissur today, no threat is in sight for the smooth election of Sitaram Kesri as Congress president.

With Sonia Gandhi becoming an ordinary member of the Congress Party, the writing is clear on the wall and none in the Congress would dare to throw his hat in the ring against Kesri unless a clear signal emanates from 10. Janpath.

In fact, the process of polarisation of political forces pitting secular forces (Congress + United Front) jointly against the Bharati Janata Party which had begun with advent of Gujral on the scene, suffered some set back with Sonia Gandhi making her political agenda clear. Even her detractors concede that she has chosen a right time to emerge on the political horizon.

It is gradually becoming clear that Sonia herself would not become the Congress president and prefer to campaign for the snap poll as and when they are held at the bidding of the party workers. The party is virtually without a star campaigner.

Senior party leaders including supporters of Sharad Pawar, Rajesh Pilot and Arjun Singh concede privately that they are in a position to pull crowds. Even P V Narasimha Rao was a disaster as a campaigner during the 1996 Lok Sabha polls.

Sitaram Kesri has burnt his fingers and health too does not permit him to campaign in the election. But he is considered a Sonia Gandhi loyalist. Some say he dealt a severe blow to Narasimha Rao at the behest of 10 Janpath.

A highly placed source close to 10 Janpath said the Congress would not withdraw support given to the Gujral government and it would be rather left to the Left parties and some regional parties to wrack the United Front. The UF and the Congress have also realised that they could arrive at a limited understanding and sharing power is ruled out due to clash of interests in some of the states.

Although senior party leaders like Pawar, Pilot and others have yet to react to the latest development in the party, it is almost clear that the party has accepted Sonia as a fate accompli. Some of them have started rallying round her.

Sources say that she would not like to rock the Kesri boat as the 82 year-old Congress president would be no threat to her plans. In fact, Kesri suits her more than anybody else in the present scenario. The battle in the Congress at present is for getting a berth in the Congress Working Committee. There is a bitter fight among the regional saptras to become an elected CWC member by forging alliances.

The appointment of principal returning officers yesterday by Kesri is an indication that he would ensure a favourable electoral college of PCC delegates who would elect him and CWC members.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.