Kesri's decision takes senior Congress leaders like Pawar by surprise

Several senior Congress leaders were taken by surprise by the party's sudden withdrawal of support to the Deve Gowda government, while state party units welcomed party chief Sitaram Kesri's decision.

"Would I have been in Pune if I had known of this?" asked Sharad Pawar, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and arguably the most influential leader in the party after Kesri. Pawar said the decision has come as a ''bolt from the blue'' to him.

''I will have to talk to the Congress president and other party colleagues and understand from them the real reasons for withdrawal so suddenly. It is only after that I would be able to make any comment on the matter,'' he added.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, the only Congress CM of a major state, described it as a surprise development. ''It is not proper to comment on it before going into the details,'' he said.

In Pune, Suresh Kalmadi, who till recently was the spokesman of the Congress Parliamentary Party, expressed surprise over the party's decision. ''I am quite surprised at Mr Kesri's decision announcing the withdrawal of support to the UF government," he said.

Kalmadi said the Congress president at the last CPP meeting had assured members of Parliament that they would be taken into confidence before any decision on the withdrawal of support to the government was taken.

Former Union minister and rebel Congress leader Jagannath Mishra told reporters in Patna that the party decision to withdraw support from the Deve Gowda government ''has been taken in 'haste''.

Dr Mishra said the CPP was not taken into confidence for such an important decision. ''Although the decision to withdraw support is correct, we should have found out the alternative,'' he said.

''The Congress has not been given the mandate to rule and it should not indulge in manipulation to form the government,'' Mishra said.

At Pune, Congress spokesman V N Gadgil welcomed the decision to withdraw support and stake a claim to form the government.

''The decision has not come as a surprise to me as I was expecting it. I was expecting something of this sort to happen during April, but it has come sooner,'' he added.

In Thiruvananthanpuram, Congress Working Committee member A K Antony said the Congress had no choice but to withdraw support to the United Front as all efforts made by it so far to correct the government's functioning did not yield the desired results.