Mishra complains to Sonia against Kesri

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Congress president Sitaram Kesri's supporters have urged him to initiate action against dissident leader Dr Jagannath Mishra for writing to Sonia Gandhi, complaining that the party chief was enrolling bogus party members.

Mishra sent a note to Sonia Gandhi claiming the party chief was trying to prepare a bogus list of Pradesh Congress Committee members, who constitute the electoral college for the party president's post. There are 7,000 to 8,000 PCC delegates, out of which Bihar and Uttar Pradesh account for 2,000. The election are to be completed by June 15.

Mishra has complained to Sonia that the party chief had only named his own aides in the list of those from Bihar, not legitimate PCC members.

Kesri denied any chicanery in the impending organisational elections. Although he asserted he is talking to party members for a consensus on the party chief's election, his critics claim he is trying to browbeat party members into electing him, threatening them with dire consequences if they don't. So far Sonia Gandhi has refused to get drawn into the controversy.

Political observers also see a concerted campaign by Kesri's critics to put him in the dock before the organisational elections, a sign of which was the resignation on Sunday of the Punjab PCC chief Santokh Singh Randhawa who asked Sonia Gandhi to take over the reins of the party.

Significantly, party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad denied charges made by Randhawa that Kesri as well as Azad were violating party norms during the organisational polls. Randhawa withdrew his resignation on Tuesday.

The anti-Kesri lobby in the Congress apparently hopes constant complaints will cause Sonia Gandhi to step in. It is understood that Narasimha Rao's allies -- S S Ahluwalia and Suresh Kalmadi -- are also planning to inform Sonia Gandhi about Kesri's arm-twisting tactics.