Pressure on Kesri to marginalise Prasada

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Pressure mounted on Congress president Sitaram Kesri to take action against Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Jitendra Prasada.

Prasada’s failure to maintain control of the state unit is believed to be a big stumbling block in Kesri’s re-election as party chief.

Congress General Secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad told Rediff On The NeT that the party leadership was 'worried' that Prasada had not kept the state unit intact. The party’s UP cadres revolted last week and replaced Congress Legislature Party Pramod Tiwari with Naresh Agarwal. "Prasada has to do a lot of explaining," Azad said, but did not clarify if the party leadership itself was contemplating action against Prasada.

UP Congress leaders like Ratna Singh and Akhilesh Das have reportedly spoken to Kesri about the issue, stating that Prasada’s recent attitude bode ill for the Congress chief’s re-election in May. Kesri is reportedly averse to replacing Prasada as the UP Congress president, despite pressure from his aides, who feel the UPCC chief now seeks to be party president.

A party joint secretary from UP claimed Prasada had also been in touch with the camp of Narasimha Rao, Kesri's arch-rival, allegedly to become party president.

Kesri was scheduled to hold a meeting to decide how to handle Prasada with senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar, who has also been asked to try and strike a deal with the Samajwadi Party to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh.