Congress president Sitaram Kesari was all set to be elected the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) by consensus at its meeting today, although Rajesh Pilot yesterday insisted that he wanted to contest an election by secret ballot.
A group of MPs, mainly of those rounded up by supporters of P V Narasimha Rao, supported Pilots candidature. Jagannath Mishra, a leading light of the group, claimed there were 75 MPs. A score of them attended a press conference to demand a secret ballot. Six of the 52 who had signed a memorandum to that effect wrote to Kesari to retract from that stand.
Congress MPs have been asked to meet Nawal Kishore Sharma and Manmohan Singh, who were on Wednesday charged by the Congress Working Committee (CWC) with the task of ascertaining the views of the MPs between 9 am and 4 pm today. The CPP is to elect whoever this two-member committee says has the support of the majority.
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Raos supporters sent a delegation of seven MPs to Kesari to complain that Sharma and Singh were identified as Kesaris supporters and few MPs would dare speak against the party presidents candidature before them. G Venkat Swamy, whom Kesari has nominated to chair the meeting, is also identified with the party president, they added.
Kesari told the delegation, which included Y S Rajashekhar Reddy and Suresh Kalmadi, that the mode of election had been decided by the CWC, which was supreme. There were precedents for the method too.
Pilot said that a number of Congressmen had telephoned him, wishing him well for the preservation of the ideals and democratic traditions which have kept the party going for 110 years.
He seemed to expect to be bulldozed, but claimed that he would have the support of a majority if a secret ballot was allowed.
Sharad Pawar, who had initially been in the running but backed Kesaris candidature at the CWC meeting on Wednesday, was among the party leaders who attended a tea hosted by All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Meira Kumar. Kesari attended, but Pilot and Rao did not. Kesaris backers met at the residence of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Jitendra Prasada, who is an elected member of the CWC. Among those who attended were Santosh Mohan Deb, who resigned as the chief whip of the party in the Lok Sabha a day before Rao resigned as the leader.
Raos supporters had met in the morning to decide their strategy. There were a series of meetings, lunches and dinners, including one hosted by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, through the day as MPs debated the pros and cons of the election method, Pawars giving up and the Pilots position for the future.
Some of Pawars backers spoke bitterly after the failure of his bid, even predicting a split in the party if Kesari continued to run the party as he pleased.