The Congress national vice president Jitendra Prasada who was replaced as the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president by party chief Sitaram Kesri only on Friday last has struck back.
This was the general observation among Congress functionaries when they heard of 19 Congress MLAs splitting the UP Congress Legislature Party to support Kalyan Singh in his confidence vote slated for Tuesday.
According to a senior leader of the party, the split in UPCLP after Tiwaris appointment had proved that the party presidents move on the state was taken in haste and without giving much thought to its repercussions.
According to another party functionary, Kesri had taken a hasty decision on Uttar Pradesh following a meeting with Bahujan Samaj Party president Kanshi Ram. Kanshi Ram had reportedly taken Kesri into confidence before pulling the rug from under the feet of the BJP-led Kalyan Singh government in the state.
Kanshi Ram had told Kesri that if he wanted to appoint Tiwari he should do it before the BSP withdrew support as Tiwari may be in a better position to keep the Congress flock together as compared to Prasada. Naresh Agrawala, who is the leader of the now break-away Congress group in Assembly, was once known to be very close to Prasada. Kesris call to explore the possibility of forming a non-BJP government was also a part of the same strategy which was shared by the BSP supremo.
According to the strategy, the Congress was to give an impression that there was a chance of the Congress forming a government in UP with the outside support of the BSP and the Samajwadi Party. Though Kesri knew it well that there was no chance of the Congress forming a government, the plan was basically to create an environment for it in order to keep party MLAs intact .
Kanshi Ram was part of this strategy for the simple reason that he was also fearing a split in his party and a hope in his party MLAs of sharing power with Congress would have helped him in keeping his flock together.
Now that the Congress has split, the BSPs vulnerability at the hands of an upbeat BJP has become an issue of common discussion. The BSP has kept its MLAs locked up at an unknown place, say sources.
However, there are reports that eight of their MLAs were missing.
Prasadas action, say Congress functionaries, is the result of Kesris hasty decision to appoint N D Tiwari as the PCC chief
