NEW DELHI, AUG 20: The Congress President Sitaram Kesri today renominated three of his prominent supporters - J B Patnaik, Meira Kumar and Oscar Fernandes as members of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and sprang a surprise by appointing Mizoram Chief Minister Lalthanhawla to the apex policy making body.After today's nominations only three of the nine seats from the nominated. And though Kesri today sent four of his ardent supporters to the CWC, he has left space for Sonia Gandhi to join the party's top decision-making panel, if she ``so chooses''.Kesri is hoping that Sonia Gandhi will take up one of the three berths remaining after his impassioned request in the party plenary session in Calcutta 10 days ago.All four nominated members have rarely, if ever, strayed against the party high command. Only Lalthanhawla has some sort of an independent record having once quit Chief Ministership following differences with former Premier Rajiv Gandhi over the Mizo accord with Laldenga. Patnaik, Kumar and Fernandes have always agreed to whatever the Congress president decided, whoever occupied the post.Meira Kumar, whose tenure in the CWC under P V Narasimha Rao, and briefly under Kesri earlier, has been mostly uneventful, has the additional advantage of being a Dalit and a woman. She thus represents both sections of society. Till now she is the only woman in Kesri's CWC.Kumar, whose father Jagjivan Ram was a former Deputy Prime Minister, represents Karol Bagh reserved Lok Sabha seat in Delhi. Oscar Fernandes gives Karnataka a seat in the CWC but his role is likely to be limited to conducting organisational elections. Patnaik has been renominated for services rendered to Kesri in his election as party president.With today's nominations Kesri retains control of the CWC with 13 members in his favour and three against. Arjun Singh, Sharad Pawar and Ghulam Nabi Azad will thus have their hands full within the CWC. The last three berths in the CWC now acquire a fair amount of importance as a lot depends on how Sonia Gandhi responds.Kesri has so far made at least three public requests, and several private ones, to Sonia to accept a CWC berth. There has been no positive signal from 10, Janpath, yet but Kesri is still hoping. In the Calcutta plenary session, Kesri made an impassioned plea to Sonia to takeover the party leadership. The octogenarian party president is aware that most of the CWC members are not known to be mass leaders. Thus, the focus on Sonia.
