RPI leader Ambedkar unseated

MUMBAI, January 7: Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Prakash Ambedkar today received a fatal blow in the factional fights within the pa...

MUMBAI, January 7: Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Prakash Ambedkar today received a fatal blow in the factional fights within the party following the Election Commission’s nullification of the March 22 and 27, 1997 elections for the post of the party president.

The elections conducted by rival RPI groups had established Raja Dhale and R S Gavai as presidents of the party factions, kicking off bitter wrangle. The polls had become a point of dispute between the two factions with both sides unwilling to retreat from their respective positions. Even as the party split vertically, for all practical purposes, Ambedkar had approached the EC to give its verdict on the leadership dispute.

According to Ramdas Athawle, leader of the RPI faction opposing Prakash Ambedkar, the EC rejected both the elections saying they were not according to the party’s constitution and directed that the original presidium of the party comprising 10 members would elect the party president with a majority votes. Thus, the elected president would have the right to sign the A and B forms of the EC for the party’s nomination and symbol. The commission also directed the party leaders to re-elect all the committees before March 1998 and to complete the process of organisational elections soon after the forth coming general elections as per the party’s constitution and law of the land.

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Acting swiftly on the EC’s verdict, the Athawle group called an emergency meeting of the original presidium of the party and got R S Gavai elected with seven out of 10 votes. Prakash and Raja Dhale were not present in the meeting.

According to Athawle, the presidium also passed two more resolutions. The first resolution authorised the party president to continue dialogue with Congress for the ongoing talk on the electoral alliance in Maharashtra. While the second resolution expelled Arjun Dangle from the party for allegedly meeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Atal Behari Vajpayee.