Pawar amp; Co dissent politely

The letter requested that the Congress should itself suggest an amendment to the country8217;s Constitution to the effectthat the offices of the President, Vice-President and Prime Minister may be held only by natural-born Indian citizens.

A rattled Congress president had a series of discussions throughout the day with senior Congress leaders to decide what action should be taken against obvious breach of party discipline and attempt to scuttle her bid for prime ministership.

Hardliners in the party like Arjun Singh, M L Fotedar and Pranab Mukherjee favoured expulsion of the three while moderates like Kamalnath, A K Antony and Ahmed Patel feared that such an extreme step would only widen the rift in the party and harm its poll prospects, particularly in Maharashtra, Pawar8217;s home state. Sangma and Anwar are also former Lok Sabha MPs with clout in their respective regions at the grassroot level.

The CWC meeting has been called to isolate Sharad and Anwar in the party and not to generate a discussion on the issues they have raised. These are embarrassing for the Congress since the BJP has been campaigning on the sameissues. Tomorrow8217;s meeting is bound to pass a resolution expressing full faith in Sonia8217;s leadership.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sangma could not be informed of the meeting as he left for the USA early this morning. Pawar who was in Pune today said he may attend the CWC meeting in Delhi tomorrow. He has cancelled his visit to Chennai where he was to meet Jayalalitha for further talks on a poll alliance. Anwar, who is the only one of the three dissidents in Delhi, said he would attend the CWC if he was called. Anwar is known to be close to former Congress President Sitaram Kesri, who is known to be unhappy over the way in which he has been completely marginalised in the party. Kesri called on Anwar today.

Anwar told The Indian Express that the need to write the letter arose as 8220;we were not allowed to debate the issues at yesterday8217;s CWC meeting.8221; He said, 8220;When we raised the issue, it was diverted towards the RSS-BJP.8221;It is believed that Pilot, Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy and Meira Kumar have been in touch withPawar but were not prepared to stick their necks out and sign the letter. Former Orissa Chief Minister J B Patnaik and a number of state leaders are also reportedly in touch with Pawar.

The inclusion of Sangma is considered surprising since he was believed to be close to Sonia. But he has been been hurt by the fact that he was totally ignored during the recent crisis in the party when Sonia8217;s attempts at government formation were scuttled. Sangma was not even asked to speak to the north-east MPs for their support.

It was Sangma who is believed to have hurriedly drafted the letter after the stormy CWC meeting yesterday and got the two other signatures. Pilot wanted the issue to be discussed after the General Elections and decided by the CPP. Meira Kumar was in Jalandhar. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy is believed to have developed cold feet.

The issue of the Congress president8217;s citizenship and the BJP8217;s campaign was raised at the CWC meeting by Sonia herself out of the blue.

It was picked up by R K Dhawan, whosuggested that the CWC should pass a resolution to condemn the BJP and its allies. Though the meeting was slated to discuss the possibility of alliances and the Goa, it turned stormy when the citizenship issue cropped up suddenly. The members were caught off-guard.It was at this juncture that Sangma said the campaign could not be dismissed lightly. The party must ponder over it as it had given a handle to its opponents. Pawar and Tariq backed Sangma.

However, most of the CWC members vehemently opposed any discussion and felt that there was a need for unity in the party.

One view in Sonia8217;s camp is to persuade Pawar even at this late stage and make him fall in line after making him realise how totally 8220;isolated8221; he is. But most feel there is no alternative but to issue a notice to Pawar, not only for writing the letter but also for leaking it to the press. Pawar has been chafing ever since Sonia took over as party president since he has been ignored and slighted repeatedly. He obviously hoped to cash inon the mounting resentment among many Congressmen over the fact that the coterie of Arjun Singh, M L Fotedar and R D Pradhan are totally in charge at 10 Janpath and other Congressmen are being excluded from the decision-making process in the party.