NEW DELHI: After dithering for ill four Weeks the Congress president P.V.Narasimha Rao resorted to a complex maneuver in order to retrieve lost ground and c a better grip over the party apparatus while finalizing the nominations to the Congress Working Committee.

The highlight of the move made by Rao is the “nomination” of Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar the two Union Ministers who “registered to sounding victories in “the CWC elections at Tirupati exactly a month ago.

What has facilitated the transfer “Of these two names from the elected to the nominated component of the GWC is a resolution adopted by the 10 elected members ‘of the working committee at its ‘first meeting on April 27. At that meeting the member’s unanimously “requested” the Congress president “to take whatever steps he deemed fit to accommodate ‘scheduled castes scheduled tribes and women in the elected component of the Congress Working Committee.

Though five of the elected members of the CWC had offered their resignations to Rao Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar did not Rao has made the best of the authority’s that this resolution vested in him to make a political point even though he did have the individual resignations of Singh and Pawar.

Party spokesmen however put a different construction to the decision to place these two party seniors in the nominated category.

They argue that both Singh and Pawar would in any case have been nominated to the CWC if they had not contested the poll. Secondly the right signals would go out to scheduled castes tribes and women if two of the senior most ministers were seen vacating their Seats for them.

However much will depend on how these two ministers who “were accused of having formed a syndicate during the working “committee election at Tirupati respond to Rao’s latest move.

Narasimha Rao has utilized the power of nominations to ensure that those who have a sound working relationship with him constitute the majority in the ‘working committee The exercise however is Incomplete and deliberately so according to sources close to Rao the argument being that the four vacancies Rive the Congress president some elbow room to deal with political contingencies that may arise after the constitution of the working committee.

Among the chief ministers of the four major states ruled by the Congress Rao has chosen Karunakaran and Beant Singh as members of the committee Karunakaran’s inclusion A.K.Antonys election to the CWC notwithstanding is only indicative of his proximity to the Congress president.

On the other hand the Karnataka Chief Minister S.Bangarappaand the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Janardhana Reddy have been left out. Bangarappa does not appear to have established a rapport with Rao and has to therefore reconcile himself to the fact that while he is out a fellow backward class leader from Karnataka Janardhana Poojary is in The election of Vijayabhaskara Reddy to the CWC is cited as the reason for the non-inclusion of Janardhana Reddy.

The appointment of Sushil Kumar Shinde as a general secretary of the party has its own political message because Shinde is known to belong to the anti-Sharad Pawar faction.

The announcement has injected an element of uncertainty about Sitaram Kesari’s continuance as party treasurer. Indications are that Rao is keen on implementing the one-man one-post principle and that he has given Kesari the option to choose between a position in the Cabinet or the party.

The next major political event within the Congress will be the election of the 8-member Congress Parliamentary Party Board by and from among the members of the Congress Working Committee. Since the party president has after the nominations gained a firmer grip over the CWC an attempt will certainly be made to get the CWC to authorize him to continue the board.

Under the Congress constitution an AICC session has to be convened within six months of the plenum Party sources indicate that this AICC will be held at an early date so that the two vacancies in the elected component of the CWC will be filled hopefully by those belonging to scheduled castes scheduled tribes and women

Article extracted from this publication >> May 29, 1992