Kesri outwits dissidents
Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Sunday's Congress Working Committee meeting -- which was widely expected to enmesh party chief Sitaram Kesri in deep trouble -- ended in a resounding victory for the old warhorse. Instead of challenging his leadership, the CWC merely endorsed Kesri's strategy to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party at the three-hour meeting.
Motivating senior party colleagues to fight the BJP, Kesri favoured the creation of a committee to iron out the Congress-United Front differences.
Significantly, senior Congress leaders, who recently indicated that they were not inspired by Kesri's leadership, backed his strategy. Thus, Congressmen, who hoped to share power in the United Front government, meekly fell in line with the party's strategy even as Kesri asserted his leadership.
To outwit the dissidents, he fielded supporters like Madhavrao Scindia, Ahmed Patel and J B Patnaik as speakers who stressed the importance of discipline in the party.
Earlier, R K Dhawan lashed out at the dissidents -- an oblique reference to the clandestine moves of some Congress leaders who are said to be 'flirting' with the BJP.
Senior party officials said Kesri also won over Congress vice-president Jitendra Prasada -- a blow for the dissidents.
Kesri-Prasada relations soured after the former made Narain Dutt Tiwari the Uttar Pradesh Congress chief. Kesri later made amends by including Prasada in the three-member party panel looking after UP affairs.
As a result, Prasada has toned down his opposition to Kesri. Interestingly, another Kesri-baiter, Sharad Pawar, did not attend the meeting -- he was out of the capital
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