Sonia mania grips Cong, may consume UF

Rao loyalists, however, were quick to say that this was just a “draft” and they would wait until the CPP and the CWC meetings are held tomorrow. This suggests that the Government will get some time to put together its reaction.

Former AICC general secretary Devendra Dwivedi, a known supporter of Rao, said he wouldn’t react to media reports on the matter and would wait for the draft to be formalised. Sources also said the Congress could dilute some portions of the letter keeping in mind immediate electoral concerns.

The draft resolution is expected to be passed by the CPP executive before Parliament meets tomorrow to place the Jain Commission report in the House.

Reports suggest the CWC is meeting at 2 pm following which a formal communique will be sent to the President withdrawing support to the UF on the issue before any debate on the matter can take place.

This was arrived at after a meeting of top Congress leaders chaired by party president Sitaram Kesri who is pulling all strings to stay afloat in the tidal wave in favour of Sonia Gandhi leading the party in the next election. Nobody is sure of Kesri anymore and discussions have gone beyond him in the Congress.

Consequently, party leaders began discussing modalities of pulling down the Gujral Government with Sonia as the fulcrum of their campaign for the elections which will follow.

The mood today was to go for the kill on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination issue as the party feels no other issue will help at the moment. Kesri and Mukherjee endorsed the call to get Sonia to head the Congress campaign. Buoyed by this, AICC office-bearers met in the evening and CWC members confabulated informally on how and when to inform Gujral of the party decision.

The discussions were on how to milk the Jain Commission issue to the full, also the details of the letter to be handed over to Gujral seeking the formal ouster of the DMK from the Front ministry.

The first indication of the mood in the Congress was at a UPCC rally at the Congress headquarters. More than 2,000 party workers chanted at a level not seen for time in the party, asking Sonia to lead the party. Kesri was forced to intervene and go along with the demand. He rose to accede to everything the crowd wanted.

“I was always for Soniaji heading the party. I had already said so in the Calcutta plenary session. I am 82 years old and I respect the sentiments of party workers. No one in the party is opposed to her, she must come and take over the burden of running the party. She should salvage the situation,” Kesri told the restive crowd which kept chanting slogans in Sonia’s favour.

Mukherjee echoed this, “I think she will be able to unite Congressmen. They will be enthused by her.” All this forms the latest, and most important, indicator of the way the Congress will possibly go in the next few weeks.

However, there were some crucial hiccups too. Sonia was advised to keep away from today’s function by security personnel who appeared unnerved by the crowd which surged in along with UPCC chief N D Tiwari. Around 1,000 people had come in the first batch, all going through the metal detector. But the second group just marched in with Tiwari and the detector became irrelevant.

This was enough to provoke the securitymen who then kept Sonia away from the function. But this does not in any way solve the problem of how the Congress expects Sonia to campaign for it when she is advised to stay away even from a small, enthusiastic crowd in the party headquarters. In her absence, Kesri received the torch from Tiwari.

Over the last few days, at least nine top Congress leaders have called on Sonia at 10, Janpath. Arjun Singh, K Karunakaran, N D Tiwari, Suresh Pachouri (Sewa Dal chairman), Kesri, Pranab Mukherjee, Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, Meira Kumar, Ahmed Patel and sundry others have paid obeisance to her already.