Kesri clips Prasada's wings, but ignores lurking danger

Senior Congress leader Narain Dutt Tiwari's appointment as Uttar Pradesh party unit chief is a setback for party vice-president Jitendra Prasada.

Following his running feud with Congress president Sitaram Kesri, Prasada has been asserting his authority in Uttar Pradesh, much to the former's chagrin.

Hostilities commenced soon after the Congress session in Calcutta when party workers attacked Kesri at Sultanpur, UP, in August. Prasada's adversaries alleged that he was behind the attack. The party vice-president also offended Kesri by saying the issue of Uttar Pradesh party president should be settled through a ballot.

Furious with Prasada's open defiance, Kesri summoned Tiwari from Canada recently. Though it was played down as a ''routine meeting'', it finally turned out to be an exercise to clip Prasada's wings.

Tiwari's appointment is considered Kesri's masterstroke as the move has driven a wedge between the new UP Congress chief and Arjun Singh who were together in the breakaway Indian National Congress.

Arjun Singh has thus been forced to part ways with Tiwari who is now bound to sing to Kesri's tune.

Kesri is also understood to have instructed Tiwari to cancel Prasada's public meeting at Lucknow on October 27.

The party chief, however, is overlooking a lurking danger: the possibility of his detractors like Sharad Pawar and Arjun Singh ganging up against Kesri.

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