Rao Camp Throws Its Weight Behind Pawar
Fresh from the exoneration from the court in the St Kitts case, the P V Narasimha Rao camp yesterday intervened confidently in the campaign for the Congress presidential polls in favour of Sharad Pawar, but speculation continued over the finalisation of the all-important list of voters for the election.
As the round of mutual recrimination continued within the Congress, the election took a new turn with former MP Anadi Charan Das approaching the Delhi High Court for a stay on the ground that there had been several irregularities while finalising the electoral college.
Pawar regretted the delay in furnishing the voters list even though the date of polling is drawing near (June 9). Congress sources, however, said the list was very much with party president Sitaram Kesri, and was deliberately not being released to the other two candidates for obvious reasons. In any case, they said nearly 85 per cent of the voters were Kesris men.
Kesri yesterday said he would undertake a tour of various states after the polling is over. His aides, however, wondered how this would be possible against the doctors advice. Kesri said he disapproved of Arjun Singhs remarks against Pawar, and said he did not want any bitterness in the campaign. He did not bear any ill-will against Pawar and Rajesh Pilot, but did not agree with them that the Congress had weakened under his leadership.
Senior Congress leader K Karunakaran also disapproved of Singhs tirade against Pawar, and regretted that the election campaign was degenerating into a mud-slinging match among senior leaders.
Devendra Dwivedi, a close aide of Narasimha Rao, yesterday heaped charges against Kesri, and said only Pawar had the promise to provide a dynamic, forward-looking and bold leadership to the party at this juncture. He expressed great surprise over Arjun Singhs charges against Pawar, and said Singhs utterances had trivialised the election process.
It was an exercise in self-promotion by Singh. After causing the defeat of the party in Madhya Pradesh, he is trying to once again become the number two in the organisation. His efforts would certainly not be in the interest of Kesri, Dwivedi told newsmen.
For years, the election of the Congress president was carried out by consensus. Dwivedi said the ongoing election did not represent a failure of consensual politics, but a failure of the dispensation under Kesri to create an atmosphere congenial for arriving at a consensus.
He said it was unfortunate that even though the appointment of Kesri was done by a consensus brought about by Narasimha Rao, the politics of consensus had become the first casualty of the kind of politics pursued underSitaram Kesri.
Pawar met Narasimha Rao last night, and congratulated him on being exonerated in the St Kitts case. Reports reaching here from Congress sources confirm that during Pawars tours to various states, he is being openly supported and feted by leaders owing allegiance to Narasimha Rao.
This includes Matang Singh in Assam and Jagannath Mishra in Bihar.
During his visit to Bhopal yesterday, Pawar was received by PCC president Parasram Bharadwaj, senior leader V C Shukla and party MP Gufran-e-Azam. Pawar said a revival of the Congress had taken place in Maharashtra during the last two years.
A R Antulay, who has joined hands with Pawar for the election, claimed here yesterday that Pawar had received a warm response in Bhopal, but the claim was disputed by state general secretary Manak Agarwal, who described the visit as a flop show. According to Agarwal, Kesri will get the support of 630 of the 640 voters in MP.