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Congress President Sitaram Kesri has decided to take on the Left.
He today categorically warned the leaders of the two communist
parties to desist from giving vent to their blind anti-Congressism
of "be prepared to face the consequences".
Kesri has picked up West Bengal Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee
and Kerala PCC chief Vaylar Ravi to lead the frontal assault on the
Left.
While the two seniors will engage the Left Front in ideological
skirmishes, party's young turks like Mamta Benerjee, P R Das Munshi
and P C Chacko would lead Kesri's shouting brigade.
Determined to prove himself as Chacha Chanakya of modem politics,
Kesri has now started tapping, resentment budding up among United
Front constituents like the Tamil Maanila Congress, the Janata Dal
and sections of Samajwadi Party against the Left's big brotherly
attitude.
The Congress realises that the Left would try to sabotage the
formation of the 10-member coordination committee.
But now that a one-to-one mechanism of coordination between the
Congress and the UF Government between Kesri and Gujral has started
functioning, it has stopped bothering about nitty gritty of the
ground level coordination committee.
Pranab's induction in the high-powered Congress Working Committee
on -Tuesday was part, of Kesri's foolproof strategy to drive a
wedge among the UF constituents by exhorting them to free
themselves from "the vice-like grip of the Left".
The Congress President is reported to have taken up this line with
TMC chief G K Moopanar when he met the latter after a half-hearted
bid by the CPM leader Harikishen Singh Surjeet to bring back the
TMC into the Government.
Even though Moopanar may not take Kesri's bait and think in terms
of returning to the parent organisation, the confusion and
cacophony that preceded Gujral's selection as a replacement for H D
Deve Gowda has left a bitter taste in the TMC leaders' mouth. After
the Chennai meet of its rank and file, the TMC is likely to keep
its options open, Congress leaders feel.
Kesri's emissaries are, meanwhile, in constant touch with other
discontented UF leaders like Laloo Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav,
who are squirming under the Left's high-handedness. Sharad is
fuming because he blames the Left for being left out of the Gujral
Ministry, Laloo wants to settle his score with the Left for having
propped up his bete noire Mulayam as the leader of secular forces
in the north.
The skepticism expressed by Laloo in Patna today over the longevity
of the Gujral Government - "When there is no guarantee of a human
life how can the stability of a government be ensured ?" the Bihar
Chief Minister is reported to have asked - has come as a shot in
the arm for the Kesri camp.
The Kesri camp today jubilantly referred to Laloo's latest warning
to the UF that "some vested interests could harm the government
lest the supporting parties are given more importance" as a
vindication of its stand that a UF constituents were now fed up
with the manipulative politics of the Left.
Kesri had given notice of intentions to CPM leader Somnath
Chatterjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Monday after Gujral Ministry
was sworn. "We too know how to play politics and will soon teach
you a thing or two," he is reported to have warned the CPM leader.
The Congress party's decision to target the Left is, however, not
motivated by considerations of personal gain for Kesri alone. The
party leadership is aware that in the states like West Bengal,
Kerala and Tripura, Congressmen are engaged in direct confrontation
with the Left parties.
In the other eastern and southern states, where the UF constituents
are the principal opponents of the Congress, challenging the
so-called 'moral authority' of the Left is bound to pep up the
morale of the party's rank and file.
As the new CWC member Mukherjee puts it: "It is the Left which is
responsible for the rabid anti-Congressism demonstrated by the
leaders of the third force in the past.
Once the Congress is able to counter the Left, the ]bird Front
forces may not mind aligning with the Congress to fight the future
battles against communal forces.
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