Pressure mounts on Sonia
Section favours her as Oppn Leader
From K. V. Prasad
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — The Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) will meet here tomorrow to elect its Chairperson with a section exerting pressure on Mrs Sonia Gandhi to don the mantle as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

There seems to be no challenge to Mrs Sonia Gandhi on her re-election as the Chairperson of the CPP, a post that was recreated for her last year.

In 1998, Mrs Sonia Gandhi was elected to the post as she was not a member of either House of Parliament and after becoming Chairperson, she appointed Mr Sharad Pawar as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Dr Manmohan Singh as floor leader in the Rajya Sabha.

In a bid to pre-empt any possible challenge, five AICC secretaries including two newly elected MPs, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyer and Mr Ramesh Chennithala today came out strongly urging her to assume the role of Leader of the Opposition. The others who issued a joint statement included Mr Imran Kidwai, Mr Sudhir Sawant and Mr Mukul Wasnik.

All of them emphasised that Mrs Gandhi was the undisputed leader of the party and that ‘‘Parliament is the forum in which the political battle is joined. The party needs to have her lead from the front.’’

Adding weight to their argument was the AICC general secretary, Mr Madhav Rao Scindia, who told The Tribune that Mrs Gandhi was the Congress leader and it was natural for her to assume the role of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

When contacted, he said it was up to Mrs Gandhi to decide whether to assume the role or to nominate someone else considering the work load that goes with the office.

Asked for his reaction to the spate of resignations by AICC general secretaries, Mr Scindia said he was nominated by the Congress President and would continue to hold the post till she desired.

Mr Scinida, who is in charge of party affairs in Maharashtra and Goa returned to the Capital today after taking part in negotiations with the Nationalist Congress Party regarding government formation there.

The names of several senior leaders including Mr N. D. Tiwari, Mr Scindia and Mr Shivraj Patil are doing rounds as those who could be nominated to the post in case Mrs Gandhi decides to do so.

In another development, two more have reportedly handed in their papers. They include Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde and Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad. With this a total of five of the seven general secretaries have resigned from the AICC in order to give the Congress President a free hand to reorganise the Secretariat.

There was a lot of activity in the party echelons after the statement of Mr Kamal Nath, who had called for purge of senior leaders and induction of younger members into the organisation.

There was resentment over the statement which did not go down well with some of the senior leaders who felt addressed. However, adding fuel was an unconfirmed report of Mr Nath coming out in the open for a contest for floor leader.

However, AICC functionaries loyal to the Congress President got in touch with Mr Kamal Nath to set the record straight, who scotched such reports.

Meanwhile, the Congress President is expected to spell out initial assessment of reasons for the rout of the party at the hustings and also give a message to the newly elected MPs on the direction she expects them to take in the new House.