Sonia Gandhi takes charge

George Iype in New Delhi

Four days after he withdraw support to the United Front government, Congress president Sitaram Kesri's last straw of hope to occupy the prime minister's chair seems to be Sonia Gandhi.

By virtue of being the widow of the late Congress prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi's 10, Janpath home is these days swamped by Congress leaders like Kesri, K Karunakaran, Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia and A K Antony.

All these Congress leaders have one request: Help us piece together a coalition led by the Congress by persuading Tamil Maanila Congress chief Govindaswamy Karupiah Moopanar to leave the United Front.

Congress sources claimed that Sonia Gandhi is now taking an active role in helping the party bosses evolve an acceptable proposal that could lead to the defeat of Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda during the vote of confidence on April 11 and the ascension of a new Congress regime.

Though she has rejected repeated Congress appeals to head the party in the last six years, many Congressmen now believe she is no longer opposed to the idea. For instance, they point out that she became an active Congress member last month. ''We expect her to be willingly elected to the Congress Working Committee any time now,'' one Congress leader said.

According to the proposal that Kesri has floated to Sonia Gandhi, the TMC would merge with the parent party. In return, Moopanar will be made Congress president.

The Congress expects that the Front will be destabilised if the TMC walks out of the fold. In return, a Kesri-led government will allow TMC leader Palaniappan Chidamabaram to continue as finance minister.

The Congress is also ready to help Chidambaram's 'dream Budget' be passed in Parliament even before the proposed arrangement takes effect. If the TMC commits itself to the proposal, the Congress has expressed its willingness to pass the Budget on April 11 itself.

The proposal also envisages the sacrificial lamb -- H D Deve Gowda -- being made President when Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma's term ends in July.

Kesri and his supporters are certain that only Sonia Gandhi can convince Moopanar, who has so far rejected the idea of merging the TMC with the Congress at this juncture. The TMC leader, who met Sonia Gandhi twice after March 30, has apparently explained to her his difficulties which includes stiff resistance from within his own party and his ally in Tamil Nadu, the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham.

A close aide of A K Antony told Rediff On the NeT that the Congress still hopes that Sonia Gandhi will step in to help the party tide over the crisis as well as ward off a mid-term poll.

''If the TMC makes up its mind, we are sure that all the other regional parties will follow suit to participate in a Congress-led coalition,'' he said.

Sonia Gandhi, he disclosed, had told Antony that she certainly wants a Congress government to replace the UF regime. She is said to be not comfortable with Deve Gowda's efforts to get the truth of the controversial Bofors kickbacks with which her late husband's name has been linked.

While the Congress president's advisers are confident that a Kesri-led government will be in the saddle soon on the basis of the formula submitted to Sonia Gandhi, many believe the strategy will fall apart if the President refuses to invite Kesri to form a government.

Congressmen fear that the President could dissolve the Lok Sabha on Deve Gowda's advice and call a general election.