NEW DELHI: New Congress President Sitaram Kesri today dispelled all doubts as to who will call shots in the post Narasimha Rao Congress by ad ministering a stem warning to Prime. Minister Deve Gowda against any move to split the party. Simultaneously, Kesri sought to exorcise the ghost of Rao still dogging the party by nominating Manmohan Singh to the Congress Working Committee and hinting that he would be given a more: important organizational responsibility soon to give a new facelift to the party. Though Kesri scrupulously avoided queries about the position of Rao in his dispensation, his invitation to ex Congressmen particularly those elected for Tirupathi session of the AICC in 1992 “whether on this side or that” opened the party’s doors for reentry of heavyweights like N.D. Tiwari, Madhavrao Scindia, G.K. Moopanar and P. Chidambaram who broke away from it due to their differences with Rao.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 9, 1996