The Congress Lok Sabha floor leader, Sharad Pawar, indicated yesterday that he would decide in a couple of days whether to contest for the presidentship of the party.
The election is slated for June 9. Rajesh Pilot and AR Antulay have already indicated that they will contest. Although none of them has filed nomination papers, it is almost certain now that the incumbent, Sitaram Kesri, will face a contest, possibly a multi-faceted one. Acknowledging this, one of his managers yesterday maintained that Kesri would easily win the contest.
Pawar said he would consult with his colleagues from various states once the lists of delegates elected from various states was published. They would then decide what to do. One of Pawars associates said that, although Kesris managers had packed the electoral college, which is comprised of PCC delegates from various states, with loyalists, the mood of the party was for change.
He added that party leaders were loyal only until they were declared elected as delegates. They would then make their own calculations. For instance, he claimed, a number of delegates from UP, particularly Brahmins, were loyal to Jitendra Prasada when it came to electing PCC and other office-bearers but had told Pawar they would not vote for Kesri to become party president.
The Pawar camp maintains that those party leaders who have met Sonia Gandhi in the last few days have got the impression that she neither backs any candidate nor opposes any one. The Kesri camp holds that she will quietly back Kesris re-election.
Meanwhile the Congress yesterday rejected the dissidents demand for constitution of a high-level committee to oversee organisational polls in various states as a section of partymen held day-long dharnas and demonstrations at the AICC headquarters here against alleged malpractices. there is no no need for a committee as the election process is going on smoothly, AICC spokesman V N Gadgil told reporters here.
He was replying to questions on the demand made by dissident leader Jagannath Mishra, that a five-member committee be constituted to go into alleged irregularities in polls in Bihar and other parts of the country.
Surinder Singla, pradesh returning officer for Bihar, challenged Mishra to prove his charge that ten lakh bogus members had been enrolled in Bihar.
Describing Mishras charge as ridiculous, Singla said scrutiny committees were functioning from panchayat to pradesh level and it would not be possible to enrol such a large number of bogus members.
Mishra and two other MPs, Gyan Ranjan and S S Ahluwalia from Bihar, and partymen from Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh staged dharnas and demonstrations throughout the day in protest against alleged malpractices.
Senior party leaders, including Sharad Pawar, A R Antulay, V C Shukla and Rajesh Pilot, visited the AICC headquarters to meet agitating MPs.
AICC general secretary R K Dhawan met Mishra and others and assured them that the party would look into their grievances.
Singla said elections went on smoothly in most of the places in Bihar.
Mishra, he said, never approached him to complain about the bogus membership and he had raised this bogey now to suit his political ends.
Till May 20, Mishra participated in the polls and his wife Veenas nomination was accepted in the Pradesh Congress Committee office in Patna, Singla said.
He said he had received a letter from Mishra, in which he proposed that old delegates be allowed to continue and 55 per cent of them should go to Kesri and the rest be given to him.
Mishra later told newspersons that what Singla had spoken was a total lie and said his wife sent her nomination to the PCC headquarters because the district returning officer was not present in Madhubani.
As regards the proposal, Mishra said, Singla had twisted the entire issue. Singla said the letter written by Mishra shows that the former Union minister has no faith in free and fair polls.
