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Top Congress bosses fear Sonia's axe

Congress president Sonia Gandhi's plan to revamp and restructure the party machinery has shaken some top leaders who fear that they would be stripped off the key posts they currently hold in the party.

A task force headed by former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma, which submitted its interim report to Gandhi on Thursday, is learnt to have suggested downsizing of the All India Congress Committee, pradesh Congress committees in states as well as frontal organisations, in its blueprint for giving a facelift to the party. The task force, comprising Sharad Pawar, Dr Manmohan Singh, Arjun Singh, A K Antony and Ahmed Patel, will submit its final report to Sonia on April 21.

The task force has already recommended that the AICC should make it a rule to have not more than five general secretaries and two joint secretaries -- their number is not fixed as of now. Though Sonia is waiting for the final Sangma report to restructure the party, many believe she will induct new faces in the apex Congress Working Committee, the All India Congress Committee, the Youth Congress and the Mahila Congress.

This has led to considerable uncertainty in the upper echelons of the party, especially among the 10 elected members in the CWC.

Some of them, like Jitendra Prasada, Pranab Mukherjee, R K Dhawan, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Tariq Anwar, have reportedly pleaded before the party president that the elected members should not be asked to resign from the CWC.

Their argument is that it is those members nominated by the ousted party chief Sitaram Kesri who should be asked to quit, allowing Sonia either to re-nominate them or induct fresh faces.

But Sonia loyalists feel that the Sangma task force might recommend the resignation of all CWC members including the elected ones, as the party constitution makes it clear that the president has extraordinary powers.

Sonia aides disclosed that she has empowered the task force to infringe upon the CWC in its terms of reference. They point out that the new party president will follow the procedure set by former president P V Narasimha Rao who in 1992 asked all the CWC members to quit. Subsequently, Rao re-nominated all of them.

"Some of the elected CWC members fear that they would be shown the door when Sonia streamlines and tones up the party set-up," said a party functionary. "But Sonia has so far kept her mind to herself, making many senior leaders panicky," he told Rediff On The Net.

"Nothing is binding on the Congress president. If an elected Congress president Kesri can be unceremoniously ousted, Sonia can as very well remove all the CWC members," he added.

While all the nominated CWC members -- Dr Manmohan Singh, A K Antony, Meira Kumar, Oscar Fernandes, J B Patnaik and Lalthanhwla -- have agreed to put in their papers before the new president, those who aspire to be inducted into highest party body include K Karunakaran, Rajesh Pilot, Balram Jakhar and Margaret Alva.

Similarly, AICC office-bearers also seem to be a worried lot as they have been in the dark as to who will be axed. It is now almost certain that the five AICC general secretaries -- Madhavrao Scindia, R K Dhawan, Meira Kumar, Oscar Fernandes and Tariq Anwar -- will be replaced by a new set of general secretaries.

Likewise, sources said the Mahila Congress chief Girija Vyas will be removed. It is learnt that Meira Kumar and Margaret Alva are aspiring to be appointed as the women's wing chief.

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