Cong Leaders Play It Cool, Say Good Riddance Cong

Kalmadi, three others quit party saying no party except the Congress under Sitaram Kesri was untouchable for them Senior Congress leaders appeared unruffled after four party MPs including former Union minister Suresh Kalmadi quit the party yesterday.

It was good riddance for the party, they said adding that the party had already decided not to field those MPs who were ready to split the Congress to help the Bharatiya Janata Party form a government after the fall of the I K Gujral government in November.

Kalmadi, Anadi Charan Sahu (representing Cuttack), Mohan S Delkar (representing Dadra & Nagar Haveli) and Gopal Tandel (representing Daman & Diu) resigned from the Congress yesterday. They claimed there would be a wave of desertions of former MPs in the coming days which could be avoided if Sitaram Kesri resigned from the party presidentship.

 

Their demand is unlikely to be fulfilled unless Kesri volunteers to quit. He is an elected president and the Constitution does not give any right to the CWC to remove him, according to a CWC member.

Praising Atul Behari Vajpayee as a candidate for prime ministership, Kalmadi, flanked by his three colleagues, announced that no party was untouchable for him except Congress under Kesris leadership. All of them said they would consult their voters before deciding their future course of action.

Middle level Congress functionaries appeared demoralised as they saw the BJPs fortunes soaring.

Kalmadi loyalists claimed that more Congress MPs, particularly those who had signed their willingness to split the Congress and join the BJP in the dissolved Lok Sabha, are likely to quit the party following indications that the party may not field them in the coming polls.

Kalmadi took the decision to resign after he failed to extract a promise from Kesri on Thursday morning that he would get the party ticket in the next election. Kalmadis name had been frequently appearing in the media as the kingpin behind the move to split the party.

Who is stopping them?, was how CWC member Pranab Mukherjee reacted when asked for his views on the possibilities of party MPs quitting the party.

Congress spokesman V N Gadgil said he was not surprised at Kalmadi quitting the party. There is talk of Gadgil or his son getting the party ticket from the Pune constituency, where Kalmadi had won last time.

Sources say that other MPs of the previous Lok Sabha who may quit soon include Pinaki Mishra of Orissa, Dutta Meghe of Maharashtra, Rajshekher Reddy and Subbirami Reddy of Andhra Pradesh. Kesri was the main target of attack. Kalmadi said his supporters had told him do not bring Kesri, you will lose your deposit.

Kalmadi attacked Kesri for having twice withdrawn support to the UF government merely on the basis of media reports on the Jain Commission report. Further, after imposing an untimely election on the country, Kesri had declared that the Jain Commission would not be an issue in the elections. This was challenged by senior Congress leader Arjun Singh within an hour of Kalmadis press conference. Jain Commission will be an election issue and it will be clear once the party manifesto is out in the next few days, he said.

Interestingly, Kalmadi was one of those who was happy when the support to the UF government was withdrawn.