Kesri quits when the going was good
Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Congress chief Sitaram Kesri's surprise resignation and plea to Sonia Gandhi to take over the reins comes in the wake of his party's more-or-less futile efforts to form the federal government in league with the United Front.
The realisation that the Bharatiya Janata Party was likely to upstage the Congress-UF
and form the next government appears to have decided
Kesri's mind. Already, murmurs of dissatisfaction in party circles over the Congress chief's uninspiring leadership were mounting, and Kesri knew it was just a matter of time before the clamour for Sonia to take over the party leadership reached a crescendo. He has thus pre-empted embarrassment by announcing his resignation.
Kesri's hopes about forging a Congress-UF government
dissipated when some constituents of the Front appeared allergic
to the idea. The pulling down of the Gujral government by the Congress rankled with
many Front leaders who turned down the idea of another
Congress-UF collaboration. Ironically, the Left constituents in the
Front, especially the CPI-M, which earlier regarded the Congress as anathema, rallied behind Kesri's party.
However, the growing opposition from UF constituents to a Congress-led government seems to have alienated Front leaders like CPI-M general secretary Harkishan
Singh Surjeet. Thus with all doors closing in on
him, Kesri preferred to go while the going was good, instead
of suffering the ignominy of being thrown out.
However, Sonia's reaction to Kesri's announcement is still
awaited. Significantly, Congress circles contend
that she was hosting a tea-party for Congress MPs at her
official residence, 10 Janpath, where she would decide
who would become leader of the Congress Parliamentary
Party.
Congress circles said since Kesri would submit his resignation at the AICC meeting which he would convene shortly, the question of the party leadership was still open. Whatever the shape of things to come, one
thing is clear: Kesri has lost much of his manouevrability
and consequently his bargaining power.
Even Kesri's staunchest supporter outside the Congress,
Laloo Prasad Yadav knew that the Congress chief
was wading in troubled waters. After unanimously being elected
leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentary party, Laloo Yadav, apparently tipped off about Kesri's impending resignation and announced that
he would support a prospective UF government.
Elections '98
Tell us what you think of this report
|