Bihar Congress leader Jagannath Mishra yesterday wrote to Congress President Sitaram Kesari, demanding what role Kesari would play in Parliament now that he has reportedly appointed SB Chavan as the floor leader in the Rajya Sabha.
The leader of the Congress Party in Parliament traditionally is the floor leader in the Lok Sabha. Since Kesari is a member of the Rajya Sabha, he was expected to be the floor leader in that house. He had already appointed Sharad Pawar as the floor leader in the Lok Sabha.
There lies the rub. Though Pawar is not openly opposed to Kesari, there have been signs in recent weeks that he has subtly joined the anti-Kesari axis, which includes Mishra, Kesari's predecessor PV Narasimha Rao and Rajesh Pilot, the only openly anti-Kesari member of the Congress Working Committee.
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Kesari no doubt calculates that the best way to contain Pawar is to appoint Chavan, Pawar's arch-enemy in Maharashtra politics, as the floor leader in the Rajya Sabha. Rao too had given Chavan that job, while he took over as the floor leader in the Lok Sabha.
Kesari, who cannot enter the Lok Sabha, is uneasy about how Pawar will project the party's relations with the United Front government there. Pawar is opposed to Kesari's belligerence vis-a-vis Gowda.
To emphasise the distinction between himself and Pawar, Kesari is placing Chavan on par with Pawar, so that both report equally to him. He obviously wants to draw a parallel between his current position and that of Indira Gandhi in 1977, when she became the chairman of the CPP, with a floor leader for each House reporting to her. Mishra has attacked this arrangement, calling it peculiar and unprecedented. He asks if, in the house, Kesari will have to function under Chavan's directions. Plus, he points out that the Lok Sabha speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman will only recognise the party's floor leaders in their houses, not the CPP leader.
His letter asks that the party constitution be changed to stipulate that the CPP leader will be the leader in the House of which he is a member and will appoint a member of the other House to be the floor leader there.
Referring to a recent controversial interview, Mishra says Chavan broke the principle of collective responsibility by giving information about events when Rao was the Prime Minister and Chavan the home minister. He adds that Chavan has also spoken of evidence against Pawar.
Mishra yesterday said he would meet with other members in a day or two to revive the issues he had raised about the role of the CPP executive after it sought to remove Rao as leader through a no confidence motion in an executive meeting.