How a deal with Prasada fell apart at last minute

Prasada finally agreed not to file his nomination papers on October 28 pending the outcome of the peace talks. The formula worked out by Digvijay was: a) Prasada would write a letter expressing faith in Sonia’s leadership and making it clear that the issue of inner-party democracy was raised by him only to strengthen her hands; b) Sonia would would react the same day thanking Prasada and lauding his contribution to the party and inviting him to give his concrete suggestions; and c) the services of Prasada would be utilised at an appropriate time.

The draft letter to be written by Prasada reached Sonia’s desk sometime at 10 pm on Saturday. Her confidants landed at 10 Janpath immediately after, among them Arjun Singh, K. Natwar Singh and M.L. Fotedar. Here is where the deal hammered out by Digvijay fell apart. Most of the leaders consulted by Sonia felt that there should be no compromise with Prasada at any cost now as it would send a wrong signal.

They noted that Prasada had grown under the Nehru-Gandhi family but was playing into the hands of the BJP. They recalled how he had joined hands with late Rajesh Pilot and had been harping on “transparency” and “inner-party democracy”. Natwar Singh reportedly added “let him have the transparency now”, and it was decided that everybody should be allowed to contest and no effort should be made to dissuade Prasada from doing so.

When the peace efforts finally failed, all the leaders working towards it withdrew and Prasada was left to fend for himself. While Digvijay left for Bhopal to sort out the problems arising out of the creation of Chhattisgarh, Azad decided to leave Prasada at the mercy of “ordinary party workers”. Ahmed Patel also retreated after requesting Prasada once, when they met at a function, not to contest as it would not be in the larger interest of the party.