NEW DELHI, May 11: Senior Congress leader A R Antulay has described Sitaram Kesri as a ``dictator'', asserting he will strongly oppose him in the race for the party presidentship and support Sharad Pawar for the top organisational post.

Referring to what happened in the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting last monday when he was not permitted to speak, the former Maharashtra chief minister said, ``I think it is an act of dictatorship. It is an act of stiffling the voice of the members.''

In an interview to home tv to be telecast tomorrow, Antulay said, ``It is an act that in its (Congress') 112 years history has not been experienced by anybody. This has added to the divisions in the party on the basis of thought processes, on the basis of commitment to democracy, on the basis of inner- party democracy.''

Attacking Kesri, Antulay said that as a provisional president of the party, he had no power to withdraw support to the Deve Gowda Government.

The Congress leader squarely blamed Kesri for the recent political crisis and said, ``the provisional president of the Congress brought the entire nation to a standstill and caused whatever losses have been incurred during the three to four weeks. As a result of whatever might have happened and did not happen, he is responsible for them.''

Calling Kesri ``an aberration'', the Congress leader said, ``he has humiliated the party. He has held the party up for public humiliation, world humiliation, international humiliation. '' Antulay, however, supported Sharad Pawar for the party presidentship in the organisational elections.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.