Congress support for Kalyan puts Kesri in acute discomfort
Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
The decision of 19 Congress MLAs to break away
and support the Bharatiya Janata Party government has come as
a grave setback to party president Sitaram Kesri.
There was considerable confusion in Congress circles
after the news broke. Neither Kesri nor vice-president Jitendra Prasada were available
for comment, to throw any light on the developments. A Congress official, however, said the
newly-appointed UP party president, N D Tewari, had denied the defection of 19 MLAs.
He simultaneously added that some Congress workers were saying the UP assembly speaker had given recognition to the breakaway Congress group.
Earlier, Kesri had a telephone conversation with UP Congress leader Pramod
Tewari after the Bahujan Samaj Party withdrew support to the Kalyan Singh government. Kesri had urged him to take preventive
measures to prevent any Congress
MLA from supporting Kalyan Singh's government. He had
also urged N D Tewari to rush to Lucknow and ensure that no
Congress MLA supported the BJP government.
The formation of a separate group by the defiant Congress
MLAs comes as a grave challenge to N D Tewari, who was appointed with the intention of clipping Jitendra Prasada's wings. Before
Tewari took over as chief of the UP Congress unit, Prasada virtually
held sway in the state.
Prasada had earlier dared the party
high command to settle the dispute on the choice of the
UP party chief by holding an election. This apparently antagonised
Kesri who subsequently appointed Tewari to the crucial post.
While it is not yet clear who inspired the split
in UP, AICC officials loyal
to Kesri say that Prasada's likely role in the matter
should be closely scrutinised.
Ever since the Sultanpur incident,
where Prasada's supporters roughed up Kesri, the two
Congress leaders have been drifting apart. There is apprehension in Congress
circles that the party vice-president might have given tacit support
to the 19 MLAs out of sheer pique against Kesri. The charge, if true, could
lead the Congress president and vice-president on the road to bitter rivalry.
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