Three Kesri detractors elected to CWC

Congress president Sitaram Kesri's panel has swept the Congress Working Committee poll though he failed to keep out three of his detractors.

Among those declared elected on Sunday night at the end of the marathon 24-hour counting are: Ahmed Patel with 664 votes (the largest number of votes), Jitendra Prasada 654, Madhavrao Scindia 612, Tariq Anwar 526, Pranab Mukherjee 503, R K Dhawan 421, Arjun Singh 382, Ghulam Nabi Azad 349, Sharad Pawar 344 and K Vijaybhaskar Reddy 331. Thus, the only Kesri panel member who lost was H Hanumanthappa.

All the 10 elected members, except Arjun Singh, Sharad Pawar and Ghulam Nabi Azad, are considered loyal to Kesri.

While Pawar is a known opponent of the Congress chief, Arjun Singh acted as a Trojan Horse in the Kesri camp. While appearing to be Kesri's follower, Arjun Singh secretly joined hands with Pawar to take on Kesri. Azad too ditched the party chief to contest independently with the Arjun Singh-Pawar duo.

When Kesri got wind of the Arjun Singh-Pawar nexus, he sent All India Congress Committee vice-president Jitendra Prasada masquerading as a dissident into the Pawar camp. Soon Prasada apprised Kesri about the conspiracy hatched by the Pawar-Arjun-Azad troika. That is why Kesri later vowed to take revenge against those who heckled him in Sonia Gandhi's presence on Saturday.

The Pawar-Arjun nexus became apparent when they transferred their votes to each other, Congress leaders pointed out.

A notable loser was Rajesh Pilot whose political stock is likely to plummet in Congress circles. That he had been aiding and abetting the Pawar camp in its moves against Kesri will weigh heavily against him as the Congress chief's supporters are now gunning for his blood.

Leading Pawar loyalist Suresh Kalmadi said that it was good for the party that leaders like Arjun Singh and Pawar are in the CWC. Kalmadi said that this would prevent Kesri from taking unilateral decisions.

Meanwhile, Kesri's post-plenary session media conference appeared to be an exercise in diplomacy, designed to leave inconvenient and probing questions unanswered but giving the impression that the party was ready for all eventualities.

Outlining the party's achievements in the present political scenario, Kesri said the Congress would continue supporting the United Front government. However, it was still being debated whether the Inder Gujral Government was in the interest of the nation, he added.

Asked if his party was ready to come to power at the Centre, Kesri said it was ready for any eventuality, triggering doubts about his real intentions.

Asked whether the party would apologise to Muslims for the demolition of Babri Masjid, Kesri said the Congress was committed to contain communal forces. He said that his party had already expressed distress at the act.

As for the BJP and the Left parties, Kesri said, ''We will demolish the saffron and the red and unfurl the Congress tricolour in their place.'' He said he would never form any alliance with communal forces.

Kesri caused a flutter when he said that he would take action against dissident leader, Dr Jagannath Mishra for floating a party. However, the Congress chief felt that Mamta Banerjee did not commit any act of indiscipline by launching a party.

Nominations for the other positions in the 20-member CWC are likely to be finalised in a day or two.

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