HVK Archives: Tainted Congmen on Sonia list
Tainted Congmen on Sonia list - The Telegraph
Rasheed Kidwai
()
September 3, 1998
Title: Tainted Congmen on Sonia list
Author: Rasheed Kidwai
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: September 3, 1998
Graft-crusader Sonia Gandhi has invited a number of seam-tainted
party leaders to the Panchmarhi conclave. As they join several
Congress MPs, low-level functionaries and ticket-seekers for
Assembly polls heading towards the hill resort, the "brain-
storming session" starting Friday looks all set to become a
jamboree.
Though the draft paper promises to deny party tickets to corrupt
and other "anti-social elements", the invitee list includes
former Union ministers charged in various criminal cases,
including the hawala, urea and housing scams and the Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha bribery case.
The axe has fallen on Congressmen who were Governors.
Bhanupratap Singh, Krishnapal Singh, Gulsher Ahmad and Romesh
Bhandari were initially invited, only to be sent regret letters
by Naval Kishore Sharma, coordinator of the Panchmarhi meet.
Officially, the Congress said Sonia Gandhi did not want to
"politicise" the Governor's office in an intra-party affair, but
senior leaders claimed their names were dropped as Krishnapal
Singh, Bhanupratap Singh and Gulsher Ahmad, all from Madhya
Pradesh, do not get along with Arjun Singh. Bhandari has been
left out because of his proximity to the Samajwadi Party and its
leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Sonia Gandhi had earlier decided not to invite partymen accused
in corruption cases, but relented due to severe pressure from
many lobbies. She was keen to restrict the number of participants
to 250, but by Tuesday evening, over 400 Congress leaders bagged
invitations. A number of ministers of state in the Narasimha Rao
government, including Matang Singh and Vilas Muttemwar, visited
10 Janpath personally to ensure invitations.
Other party lightweights who will make it to Panchmarhi without
figuring under the prescribed criteria of former Union ministers,
chief ministers, Congress Legislature Party leaders, Pradesh
Congress chiefs and heads of frontal organisations, are Rameshwar
Neekhra, Saleem Ahmad, Harish Rawat, Maninderjit Singh Bitta and
others.
The floodgates were opened for tainted leaders once Sheila Kaul,
a former Union minister and aunt of Rajiv Gandhi, and Captain
Satish Sharma figured in the list of participants. Balram Jakhar,
whose name still figures in the Jain hawala case, has drafted the
party paper on agriculture and, in all probability, will be
initiating discussion on the subject.
Bhajan Lal, Veerappa Moily, Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, Rao and
Captain Sharma are among those who have been charged in the JMM
bribery case but will be present at Panchmarhi.
Rao has been invited as he was a former party chief and a
Congress Prime Minister. A section of the leadership was not keen
on his presence at Panchmarhi, but are reconciled to seeing him
there this weekend.
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