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Kesri under pressure to quit in favour of Sonia
NEW DELHI. May 19: India s Congress (I) Party, smarting under corruption scandal sand its worst electoral defeat in more than a century, is facing yet another leadership crisis, newspapers said today, reports AFP
They said pressure was mounting on party president Sitaram Kesri to quit in favour of Sonia Gandhi, the enigmatic widow of former premier Rajiv Gandhi, whose mother Indira and grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru steered the Congress for much of the century
The demand for the Italian-born Sonia, who announced her formal entry into politics this month, received a boost Sunday with a senior provincial leader resigning after blaming Kesri for party mismanagement
Kesri took over the reins of the party in September after former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was virtually forced out in disgrace following his implication in several corruption scandals Rao has denied all charges
Santokh Singh Randhawa,
the party head for the northern state of Punjab where, the Congress had to relinquish power after being trounced in state elections this year, asked Sonia Gandhi to intervene and save the party
"1 appeal for a new leadership under Sonia Gandhi to protect democratic norms in the Congress." he told the Punjab-based Tribune Daily.
Randhawa alleged that ongoing state-level party elections to pick new leaders in the Punjab were being ignored by the Congress top brass and were not "in accordance with norms and rules."
Randhawa's attack came as senior Congress leader A R An-tulay, an aide of Indira Gandhi, accused Kesri of jeopardising the. party's standing for personal gain.
"That he has been aspiring to become prime minister is a well known fact," he said, recalling Kesri's sudden withdrawal of support or the fragile ruling coalition on March 30.
The move sparked political turmoil and dented the Congress image. It was .finally resolved on April 21 after the Congress backtracked from its claim to power and backed a new prime minister from the 13-party alliance.
"His ambition has failed. Certain decisions that he took ended in a fiasco. He should quit. He must face the gallows .... the political gallows," Antu-lay told the Hindustan Times newspaper in an interview.
The Congress has said Sonia Gandhi's entry into active politics would "enthuse, galvanise and electrify" the party.
Gandhi had repeatedly refused to be drawn into the party since her husband, Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989, was killed on May 21, 1991 by a suicide bomber while campaigning in Southern India.
She distanced herself from the Congress when it suffered a string of electoral defeats in provincial balloting under Rao in 1994 and its worst drubbing in 112 years in last year's general elections.