Foul play not new to Cong

More important, he is not likely to be authorised to appoint the Congress Working Committee and the state bosses are going to make their own bilateral deals. The party election is as much a fight for its top slot as for those who will make it to the Congress’ apex body.Pawar has jumped in the fray after doing his homework thoroughly.

His first task is to persuade Rajesh Pilot to withdraw so that the anti-Kesri votes do not get divided.His second task is to win over PCC delegates who have been elected and the best way to go about this is through the state bosses. There is nothing to stop them shifting loyalties. After all, Sharad Pawar has financed the polls of Congress candidates particularly in the southern states in several general elections now.

Pawar is already working on Nawal Kishore Sharma and Ashok Gehlot, who was a Pawar protege at one time, in Rajasthan, and Jitendra Prasada in UP.In Madhya Pradesh, the Shukla brothers have come out openly in favour of the Maratha leader, and for all the noises he may make for public consumption, Chief Minister Digvijay Singh is also expected to cast his lot with him. Arjun Singh and Scindia are backing Kesri.

In Haryana, Pawar is expected to get the support of Bhajan Lal, in Punjab of the anti-Bhattal forces. In Kerala, Karunakaran will support him. In Andhra Pradesh, the forces opposed to Vijay Bhaskar Reddy (who has managed to get a large number of his supporters elected as delegates) are casting their lot with the anti-Kesri group and this includes G Venkatswamy.

As events developed, it was better for Pawar to contest and lose after giving Kesri a good fight than not to stand at all. For he has acquired the reputation of being a ditherer and many of his supporters would have deserted him for others if he had continued to stay aloof this time.

Secondly, contesting the party polls at this stage would also help him acquire a hold on the organisation and position himself firmly as the number two, even if he loses.

There are many who are sceptical that Pawar will remain in the race after the last date of withdrawal. His track record is one of backtracking. This happened after Rajiv Gandhi’s death in 1991 when he was seen as a contender for prime ministership, and more recently when he did not go through with the election for the leadership of CPP.

However, Pawar has assured all those he went to for support – namely P V Narasimha Rao, Pranab Mukherji and Jagannath Mishra – that there is no question of him retracing his steps this time.

Whenever an election has taken place in the Congress, the party has moved towards a split. This happened in 1939 when Subhash Chandra Bose won as party chief but resigned to float his Forward Bloc.