NEW DELHI, FEB 17: Shaken by the exit of CWC member Meira Kumar and former Union minister Kamaluddin Ahmed from the party, the Congress has managed to rein in former Lok Sabha MP and film star Rajesh Khanna who had openly attacked the party leadership and ``decided'' to quit.In an apparent bid to curb any further dissidence which the exit of Meira and Ahmed may have triggered, the party also announced a detailed schedule of its organisational elections, including that of the Congress president, by June this year.Khanna, who had been openly criticising the party's functioning for the last couple of weeks and was believed to be hobnobbing with the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, was reportedly ``convinced to come round'' by party treasurer and close friend Ahmed Patel. Sources said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi asked him to stay in the party and work toward its success in the coming Assembly elections.Sources said the former filmstar had been promised that he would be ``considered'' for a Rajya Sabha nomination next month if the party did well in the Assembly polls. Apparently miffed at being ignored for a Rajya Sabha seat from Delhi, Khanna had refused the party's nomination for the Kannauj by-election and then launched an attack on the leadership for ``humiliating'' him.Khanna's change of mood now follows from the fact that there were not many takers for him either in the BJP or the SP which already have their own lot of filmstar-turned politicians. Khanna told The Indian Express on Tuesday that he was in the Congress and would always continue to be part of it. ``All is well between 10, Janpath, and me,'' he said.With Khanna relenting, the party has decided to use his services extensively in Haryana which has a fair population of Punjabis. Apart from Sonia herself, the party has also decided to pack in a host of its senior leaders, including Madhavrao Scindia, Rajesh Pilot and Ahmed Patel, to campaign in Haryana where it feels it stands a fair chance of doing well given the differences in the INLD-BJP combine.Meanwhile, in what is being viewed as an attempt to silence the ``murmurs of discontent'' in the party aggravated by the recent exit of Meira, the party on Tuesday set the stage for organisational elections beginning March this year. Announcing the schedule, Central Election Authority (CEA) chairman Ram Niwas Mirdha said today that the focus this time would be on transparency and that the CEA would insist on election by secret ballot at all levels, including the poll for the party president. The party chief's election would be held on June 30.``We will not accept the method of unanimity or consensus adopted so far in party polls since this had caused tremendous resentment among the rank and file,'' Mirdha said.Party insiders say with the announcement of the schedule, including that of the party president, Sonia has sent out a challenge to her detractors within the party to come foward and contest if they oppose her leadership.
