NEW DELHI, March 15: A day after she took over as Congress president, Sonia Gandhi had her first taste of party contradictions over the issue of CPP leadership with several Congressmen asking her to be CPP chairperson and limit CWC member Sharad Pawar to the position of party leader in the Lok Sabha.The only clear stance Sonia could take today was when she called on President K R Narayanan and told him the Congress was not staking claim to form a government as it didn't have the requisite numbers. Sonia was responding to the President's invitation in this regard. After driving out of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, she returned to talk to the media.It resulted in great chaos with everybody rushing to get close to her in what was her first, if brief, interaction with the media. Hardly anything could be heard of what she said. But from what could be made out, she said: ``We are not staking claim because we don't have the numbers. But we are watching the situation.''The decision not to stake a claim was arrivedat in an informal CWC meeting at 10, Janpath where the strategy was to try and defeat a BJP-led government in the vote of confidence. The rest of the CWC meeting was taken up with the issue of the CPP leadership and the Rajya Sabha nominations in the biennial elections (the last date of which is March 17). Till late at night, the party was divided on the CPP leadership issue and any decision is likely to emerge only hours before the CPP meeting tomorrow evening. The section opposed to Pawar, among whom are possible contenders Rajesh Pilot and Madhavrao Scindia, feels a contest can only be avoided if Sonia is made CPP chairperson.The tussle is important as the President will have to invite the CPP chairperson and not the Lok Sabha leader for talks, should the BJP-led government fall at any stage. However, even if Sonia is chosen as the CPP chairperson in tomorrow's CPP meeting, Pawar will have the status of Leader of the Opposition as the Lok Sabha leader. Apparently, Sonia is keen to arrive at a consensusand project a united image of the party. This desire has been sharpened after Kesri's harsh attack yesterday on the way he was ousted and Sonia asked to take over. So, one view is that Sonia be chosen CPP chairperson and she nominate floor leaders in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. In this arrangement, Pawar is the frontrunner for the Lok Sabha leader's post while Manmohan Singh's name is doing the rounds as the RS Congress leader. This would be a defeat of sorts for Pawar who has been lobbying hard to get Sonia's backing for his candidature as CPP leader.Even in the last LS, Pawar's keenness was evident in what he told a group of journalists today at his house. ``There is no talk at all of making anybody the CPP chairperson. It is all media speculation.'' However, his CWC colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad has already said on record that Sonia could be made the CPP chairperson. Many MPs told The Indian Express today that Sonia's name could be proposed as CPP chairperson. ``Do you think anybody willobject to this?'' asked one of the MPs, indicating the intensity of the battle in the party.
