Sonia tells Kesri: Good job, but it’s time to go

She is said to have assuaged his feelings by praising his contribution to the party and that he was held in “high regard” by Congressmen. However, Sonia is understood to have indicated that it was time for Kesri to make way in the “interests” of the party. Following this meeting, Congress circles are hopeful that Kesri will tender his resignation latest by Saturday when the Congress Parliamentary Party is scheduled to meetand elect its leader.

Earlier in the day, embarrassed Congress Working Committee members, including Kesri, met over lunch hosted by Jitendra Prasada and tried to make temporary peace. It took some time for the ice to melt especially after yesterday’s fireworks but by the time the delicacies vanished, the CWC appeared to be relatively reconciled to Kesri taking his time to put in his papers. It is believed to have been tentatively agreed that Kesri will resign by Saturday.

Almost the entire CWC was present making it an informal meeting of the party’s top decision-making panel. Among those who attended the lunch were Ahmed Patel, Madhavrao Scindia, R K Dhawan, Arjun Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sharad Pawar, A K Antony, J B Patnaik, Meira Kumar, Oscar Fernandes and Madhavsinh Solanki.

Apparently a post-mortem of sorts of yesterday’s meeting was done and the feeling was that perhaps matters were rushed and not “handled carefully”. Till the time of reporting, Kesri had not made any move to quit formally andsundry leaders including former minister Kamal Nath met him today to resolve the impasse.

The Congress constitution provides for a change in the party presidency only if a president has either resigned or died. A third option exists but it has never been used. Two-thirds of the existing CWC members should ask for an emergency CWC meeting in which a no-confidence motion is passed against the president. The same CWC then summons an extraordinary All India Congress Committee session in which the no-confidence motion is taken up. And Kesri is loathe to precipitate this.

Interestingly, the invitations being sent out to party MPs for the CPP meeting on March 14 don’t mention Kesri’s name. The usual practice is to name the party president who presides over the meeting but this time they merely say “the Congress president shall preside”, a clear pointer to Kesri’s exit.

There is as yet no sure sign of who will emerge as the consensus choice for the CPP leadership, the issue having got entangled in the messover Kesri’s impending resignation. Several names continue to be floated as contenders including Pawar, Scindia, Rajesh Pilot, P A Sangma and even Balram Jakhar. With Sonia Gandhi not giving the slightest hint on whom she will back, all contenders feel they have a chance.

Pawar continues to be the frontrunner for the post which will be important in the coming months. Apparently, a view is emerging that Pawar has the “legitimacy” needed for the post after he led the party to a spectacular showing in Maharashtra. Pawar also has supporters in other States like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh and the consensus could build around him.

Amid all this, the party has virtually given up talking about forming a secular government. The four-member committee, of Scindia, Pawar, Prasada and Pranab Mukherjee, set up to talk to the United Front has not yet begun any discussion.