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Strident pro-Sonia chorus sings requiem for rebels

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee today appealed to party president Sonia Gandhi to withdraw her resignation from the post as ''only she can lead the party unitedly in the present situation.''

KPCC president Thennala Balakrishna Pillai said they had decided to send a fax message to Gandhi in this regard.

He strongly condemned the stand taken by the three senior party leaders against the party president at such a crucial juncture.

''These leaders have only raised the demands of the Bharatiya Janata Party,'' he added.

K C Venugopal, MLA and state president of the Youth Congress, which held demonstrations throughout the state today to express solidarity with Gandhi, said she had proved her ability to unify and lead the party at a critical period in its history and bring together the secular forces in the country.

Going by the reaction of party leaders on the issue, there appeared to be no takers for the Pawar line in Kerala. Interestingly, P C Chacko, a known lieutenant of Sharad Pawar, was among the early ones to pledge support to Gandhi.

Former KPCC president Vayalar Ravi said the open challenge posed by Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar was a political game intended to help the BJP come to power. The party would solidly line up behind Gandhi, he added.

Senior Congress leader from Pondichery, M O H Farooq today expressed solidarity with party president Sonia Gandhi. In a fax message to her, he demanded action against those who had revolted against the party leadership.

Congress volunteers in Pondicherry burnt the effigy of Sharad Pawar in front of the pradesh Congress office today.

Addressing a press conference PCC president P Shanmugham said a Congress delegation from the Union terrority would meet Sonia Gandhi tomorrow to express the partymen's desire that she continue as party president.

The local unit of the Sevadal took out a procession through the main thoroughfares of the town, expressing their support to Gandhi.

In Bangalore hundreds of Congress workers, mostly youths, today staged a dharna in front of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office demanding that Sonia Gandhi reconsider her decision to resign from her post.

The workers were led by former ministers S Ramesh and K J G George. Youth Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao and youth wing leader R V Devaraj were among those who participated in the dharna.

In an apparent move to bring pressure on Sonia Gandhi to reverse her decision Andhra Pradesh Congress chief Dr Y S Rajashekhara Reddy, and the office bearers of the state youth and mahila wings of the party today tendered their resignations.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president D Srinivas told newsmen at Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad that Gandhi's resignation had sent ''shock waves'' among the rank and file of the party.

He said that just because three members had expressed opposition, she needn't have quit as she was elected by the entire CWC and it had been ratified by the AICC.

He added that the APCC demanded stern action against the three CWC members.

Mahila and Youth Congress leaders including Andhra Pradesh Mahila Congress committee president and former minister N Rajakumari began an indefinite fast in Hyderabad demanding withdrawal of Gandhi's resignation.

Angry Youth Congress activists burnt the effigy of Pawar in front of Gandhi Bhavan.

Srinivas alleged that Pawar was responsible for Mulayam Singh Yadav's backing out from the formation of an alternative government after the BJP-led government at the Centre fell.

He said Gandhi should withdraw her resignation keeping in view the track record and background of Pawar who was a ''known turn-coat''.

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee vice president Gurudas Kamat has expressed great shock at the move by Sonia Gandhi to quit as Congress president.

Kamat, a former MP, said everyone was agreed that during her short tenure she had done a remarkable job of consolidating the party. Gandhi's foreign origins issue was baseless and had been made an election issue by the BJP in its desperation, he added.

The majority of Congressmen in Nagpur have rallied behind Gandhi and demanded action against Pawar and the two other rebel leaders.

A meeting held under the presidentship of one-time Pawar loyalist and former minister Ranjit Deshmukh expressed full faith in Gandhi's leadership and said the three rebels should apologise to her for questioning her credentials for becoming the prime minister.

T G Deshmukh said Pawar's revolt against Gandhi would lead to his political demise and offered his ''condolences'' in advance.

In separate press conferences, former deputy chief minister Nasikrao Tirpude and Pradesh Congress chief Prabha Rau called Pawar a ''traditional betrayer'' and demanded his expulsion from the party.

In a bid to persuade Sonia Gandhi to withdraw her resignation as party president, Congress workers in Maharashtra today resorted to an indefinite hunger strike and pledged to make any sacrifice to bring her back.

AICC secretary Major Sudhir Sawant said the party is worried over the outcome if Gandhi refuses to relent. 'Without Sonia Gandhi, Congress is zero'', he said and lashed out at Pawar for raising the issue of Gandhi's foreign origins when elections were round the corner.

He likened the move of Pawar, Sangma and Anwar to the ''treacherous act of Jaichand and Suryaji Pisal whom history rates as traitors.''

Meanwhile, leader of opposition in the state legislative council Chhagan Bhujbal said that the Congress in Maharashtra would like to work in tandem with Gandhi as well as Pawar. He said Pawar's contribution to strengthen the party in Maharashtra could not be overlooked.

In Aurangabad a large number of Congressmen today observed a day's fast near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the crowded locality of Shahganj urging Gandhi to withdraw her resignation with immediate effect.

Despite insinuations against her, the Congress party will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and get a majority, said Gujarat Pradesh Congress president C D Patel in Ahmedabad today.

Leader of the opposition in the assembly and former chief minister Amarsinh Choudhary took exception to the three CWC members questioning the credentials of Gandhi, saying these leaders had ''forgotten their own past.''

Some senior Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh went on an indefinite fast in front of the state Congress office in Bhopal today to pressurise Gandhi to withdraw her resignation.

MPCC general secretary Manak Agrawal, and other leaders started a fast this morning. Stating that their agitation will continue till Gandhi withdrew her resignation, Agrawal said Congress committees in all the districts would also start indefinite dharnas in their respective districts.

Expressing unequivocal support and unflinching faith in the leadership of Gandhi, the entire Haryana Congress committee, led by unit president Bhupinder Singh Hooda, today sent their resignations to her.

Hooda and others, in a communication to Gandhi, said, ''the country needs you at this juncture and the Congress without you is unthinkable, unimaginable and unviable.''

The Pune city unit of the Congress has reposed faith in the leadership of Gandhi.

The Congress party, which was on the verge of disintegration after the death of Rajiv Gandhi, was rejuvenated under the leadership of Gandhi, said city unit chief Mohan Joshi in a statement.

Interestingly, the statement made no mention of Pawar.

Maharashtra Congress Committee general secretary Rajiv Chavan said that if Gandhi does not take back her resignation there is every likelihood that fascist and fundamentalist forces will tighten their grip over the country's affairs.

Chavan added that attempts of ''power hungry'' politicians like Pawar, Sangma and Anwar is giving credibility to the RSS agenda.

The revolt against Sonia Gandhi followed by her resignation as Congress president has cast a gloom over the party in India's most populous and politically vital state, where the Congress had barely begun to rejuvenate itself.

In fact, it was Sonia's assumption of the reins of the party that had triggered a new era for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh where it had suffered setback after setback over the past ten years.

Among her first moves was the appointment of Salman Khursheed as head of the party in this crucial state which sends 85 members to the Parliament.

''It was her goodwill that gave me all the strength to strike a fresh rapport with the masses of UP,'' observes Khursheed while adding, ''surely without her, the party is bound to get relegated to where it was before she came on the scene.''

It is no wonder then that her stepping down from office has provoked a couple of UP Congress leaders to follow suit. Rae Bareli MLA Akhilesh Pratap Singh who has resigned explained it thus: ''I belong to Rae Bareli, which has been the political home of the Nehru-Gandhi family; I see no hope for the Congress without Sonia Gandhiji, hence I have decided to quit my membership of the Vidhan Sabha.''

Flaying Sharad Pawar and his two colleagues who jointly signed the letter which raised the issue of Sonia's foreign origin, both N D Tiwari, the old Congress war horse, and Khursheed saw no reason other than 'personal ambition' that had provoked them to take such a reprehensible step.

Tiwari wanted to know, ''why Pawar did not ask Sonia Gandhi about her origins when he himself proposed her name for the leadership of Congress Parliamentary party and why did he not contest for this position.''

Tiwari went on to point out how ''if Indian born citizens could head governments in countries like Trinidad, Mauritius and Guyana, it was ridiculous to raise such questions about Soniaji.''

Interestingly, while most political observers see a BJP hand behind the whole affair, Khursheed suspects that the move could have been engineered by the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has been particularly chagrined over the resurgence of the Congress in recent months.

''Samajwadi Party is like a vulture and it was bound to swoop down whenever it could find an opportunity to damage the Congress,'' he remarked.

Even those Congressmen who distanced themselves from Khursheed, foresaw Congress fortunes dwindling as a consequence of Gandhi's resignation. These included followers of ousted UPCC chief Jitendra Prasada, who held a separate meeting but passed a similar resolution condemning Pawar and echoing their faith in Gandhi's leadership.

Clearly, Sonia has been a binding factor within the Congress since the Nehru-Gandhi clan name still commands loyalty in the highly feudal milieu of the cow belt.

UNI; with additional reporting by Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

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