NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Kesri retires from politics

Our Correspondent

The native has finally decided to return. Former Congress president Sitaram Kesri, according to friends and family sources, is packing his bags and baggage to go back to his home state. He is planning to settle down in his ancestral Danapur, on the outskirts of Patna.

Though he has not yet called it a day, friends confirm that his retreat is as good as bidding goodbye to politics.

He completed his three-day visit to the state capital on May 31. His friend told rediff.com that he had spruced up his room in his ancestral house. He even ordered for the installation of an air-conditioner. He will get a pension of about Rs 20,000 per month.

Though the state Congress top brass, like acting state unit chief Chandan Bagchi, did not turn up, Minister of Family Welfare in the Rabri government, Dr Shakeel Ahmed, and Congress MLC and former minister Nagendra Jha met him.

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav also called on chacha Kesri.

In private conversations with old friends, he is said to be critical of Sonia Gandhi's leadership, and he told one of them that he would work from Patna to change the party.

Kesri has been living in Delhi for three decades. He was always considered a good organiser but was never a mass leader. He has won only one election in five decades of politics; that was the Katihar Lok Sabha seat in 1967, and by a slender margin. But, the Congress faced a problem all over the country in 1967.

He lost the 1971 parliamentary election to the erstwhile Jan Sangh candidate when the graph of then prime minister Indira Gandhi was up.

He was made president of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee in 1973 and continued till the party's defeat in 1977. He returned to national politics and became treasurer of the party. He became party chief after the defeat of Narasimha Rao in the 1996 Lok Sabha poll.

Coming from the Mandal class -- a Bania -- in the upper caste dominated Congress, he was always close to Laloo. The latter played a crucial role in seeking outside support of the Congress for the United Front governments of Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral.

Kesri was attacked for withdrawing support for the Gowda government at the instance of Laloo, as the then prime minister allegedly got Laloo implicated in the fodder scam.

Later, the Congress withdrew support for Gujral following the leakage of the Jain Commission report. Kesri was then removed from the post of party chief.

He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha for over two decades. Sonia finally decided to send him packing by denying him a ticket when his term expired last March.

A disillusioned Kesri found no charm in Delhi and decided to return to the place from where he started his political career even before independence.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report