Back off, Congressmen tells Kesri

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Pressure mounted on Congress chief Sitaram Kesri from within the party to reconsider his decision regarding the withdrawal of support to the United Front government. Even as the ruling coalition leaders urged him to take the last chance to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party's from getting into power.

A senior Congress leader from Maharashtra said Kesri was fast losing options after a case regarding the murder of his personal physician came to court. He said most Congressmen doubted if Kesri could muster sufficient parliamentary strength for stake a claim to form the government. The Congress president ought to recognise ground realities and patch up with the Deve Gowda government in a way that could help both parties save face, he added.

Kesri met other senior Congress leaders like Pranab Mukherjee and Sharad Pawar on Saturday morning at his home, reportedly to discuss the possible implications from his finding mention in the Delhi police report on the Dr S K Tanwar murder case.

Congress dissidents, led by P V Narasimha Rao, has reportedly sent feelers to UF leaders, including Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda in a bid to undermine Kesri. One of Rao’s top aides, Dr Jagannath Mishra, referring to Kesri being mentioned in the police report, said, "The time had come to expose the double standards of the party leadership," adding that Rao had been made a victim of a vicious whisper campaign by the Kesri camp.

Meanwhile, various UF leaders were trying to arrange a meeting between Kesri and Deve Gowda, among them Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. If a settlement is not reached soon, the UF will have to go for a confidence motion on April 11.

However, both Deve Gowda and Kesri appear to have further hardened their stands. While the prime minister reportedly sought legal opinion on Friday regarding the dissolution of the Lok Sabha, the Congress issued a whip to party MPs, asking them to be present in the House on April 11. But concerned leader in both camps are trying to effect a rapprochement.

According to Congress joint secretary Sunil Shastri, Saturday’s meeting between senior UF and Congress leaders should indicate the shape of things to come – whether a settlement or a mutually destructive course that will brighten the BJP's political prospects.