Kesri will have a cakewalk if Pawar gets his pound of flesh

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The nomination for the Congress president's election closed on Wednesday with the returning officer receiving four valid nominations and a majority of the Pradesh Congress Committee delegates favouring the present incumbent, Sitaram Kesri.

Returning officer and party general secretary Oscar Fernandes said four candidates -- Rajesh Pilot, A R Antulay, Sharad Pawar and Kesri -- had filed their nominations. He said one set of nomination came from Antulay who later withdrew in Pawar's favour, three from Pilot, three from Pawar and 67 from Kesri. Each set has 10 sponsors who are PCC delegates. Thus, with 670 delegates favouring Kesri, it was clear that he would not have much difficulty in retaining his post as party chief.

That the wind was blowing in Kesri's favour was apparent from the PCC delegates's statements on Wednesday evening at the Congress headquarters. A group of PCC delegates from various states told journalists on the lawns of the party headquarters that Punjab had sponsored two sets of nomination papers in Kesri's favour, Bihar 11, Uttar Pradesh 11, Gujarat three, Madhya Pradesh nine and Haryana eight.

They also said five chief ministers and 13 out of the 19 Congress Working Committee members had favoured Kesri's nomination. As for the other six CWC members, three were out of Delhi, two were contesting the presidential poll and one was a returning officer. Also, 11 PCC presidents proposed Kesri's nomination.

The prominent Congress leaders favouring Kesri's re-election as the party chief are: Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, V N Gadgil, Vasant Sathe, Shyama Charan Shukla, Santosh Mohan Deb, Mohsina Kidwai and Jagannath Pahadia.

Meanwhile, Pilot reiterated that he would not withdraw his candidature even as there was much speculation about Pawar's nomination. Though Pawar's supporters claimed that he was marshalling support and would give Kesri a run for his money, political circles wondered why the Maharashtra strongman filed his nomination knowing it would not be easy to fight Kesri.

A senior party leader told Rediff On The NeT that Pawar wants to increase his ''bargaining power'' with Kesri in the post-organisational election scenario. Pawar is apprehensive that after retaining his post, Kesri will load the CWC with his nominees. Pawar reportedly wants to avoid any ill-treatment on account of this.

UNI adds: Addressing journalists on Thursday, Pawar claimed that many of those who had proposed Kesri's candidature were likely to support him instead.

''Many of these leaders," he said, "contacted me and assured me of their support. For various reasons their names cannot be revealed.'' Pawar claimed that he was getting ''very good response'' from almost all states.

He urged Fernandes to ensure free and fair elections for the top party post scheduled to be held on June 9.

Pawar said that he has appointed Antulay as his spokesman at the party headquarters and he will launch his election campaign on May 31 at Bangalore. During his campaign tour Pawar will visit Madras, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Guwahati, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Patna, Bhopal and Bombay.

Antulay charged Kesri with violating the model code of conduct and resorting to ''gross misuse'' of his official position. He was critical of Congress spokesman V N Gadgil who ''volunteered'' his services for Kesri. This was done at Kesri's behest to influence the voters, he added.

Gadgil should immediately stop functioning as party spokesman till the completion of the organisational elections, he said. Antulay said the complete list of Congress delegates had not been made available to the candidates.

He expressed the fear that the elections of the district Congress presidents and pradesh Congress committee chiefs, scheduled to be held on June 9, are likely to be put off. He spoke of large-scale rigging during the course of election to the PCC.

Pawar's supporters, Antulay added, were in direct touch with Rajesh Pilot to chalk out the election strategy. Pawar and Pilot have not yet had direct talks in this regard.

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