Cong Asks Uf To First Elect Its Leader

The Congress Working Com-mittee (CWC) yesterday asked the United Front to elect its leader first before the party can decide on support to a new government.

Orissa chief minister J B Patnaik told newsmen after a meeting of the CWC that the party wanted the Front to elect its leader first and other things could be discussed later.

Sources said the Pawar issue (resentment expressed by MPs on Saturday) did not come up at the meeting, with Congress president Sitaram Kesri saying in his opening remarks that he had already discussed the issue with Pawar and the chapter was closed.

In a significant development, an informal meeting of the executive committee of the Congress Party in Parliament (CPP) held at the residence of party MP, Sarat Patanaik, expressed solidarity with Kesri and defended his decision to withdraw support to the Gowda government.

In another development, Pawar ruled out a split in the party and said some interested forces were acting in the campaign to frustrate the move of secular, democratic forces to provide a secular government.