CALCUTTA, Aug 11: From now on Congress president Sitaram Kesri will have to draw on all his back-room skills to keep things under control in the party after the Congress Working Committee elections sent three of his strong opponents and a host of others who swear loyalty to Sonia Gandhi, into the powerful party panel.

Of the elected 10, R K Dhawan, Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, Ahmed Patel, Jitendra Prasada and Ghulam Nabi Azad have all been at the beck and call of 10, Janpath, in the past. A majority of these six are still loyalists of Sonia, a factor which could change power equations in the CWC and, by implication, the rest of the Congress.

Among the other four, Sharad Pawar is anti-Kesri while Pranab Mukherjee, Tariq Anwar and Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy can be termed friends of Kesri. Even here Reddy has a grudge to nurse after his near-elimination from the top 10.

Reddy is upset that while his followers voted en masse for Kesri's panel members, the others didn't return the favour. Reddy was in a similar situation last time in the Tirupati plenary. This should work on his mind and in any tight situation, Kesri could well find the balance tilting against him.

Sonia thus casts a huge shadow over the new CWC. The second important factor which decided the final outcome was the voting pattern of about 150 Muslim AICC delegates. Arjun Singh, who was the most vocal votary of a public apology from the Congress over the Babri Masjid demolition, gained immensely from his stand.

Singh was backed solidly by the Muslim voters and he got at least 50 per cent of his votes from here. The rest were provided by the Sharad Pawar group. Singh thus begins his second, and more important, life in the Congress as a member of the CWC. His success is all the more creditable considering the failure of N D Tiwari who quit and rejoined the Congress with Arjun Singh.

Curiously, Tiwari had no support from anybody important in the party and his current status is perhaps in keeping with ground realities. Having triggered off consciousness among the Muslim delegates, Arjun Singh was able to get Ghulam Nabi Azad in too.

Azad got a fair number of votes as a Muslim and the rest were provided by Ahmed Patel who was paying up debts. Not so long ago, Azad was propping up Ahmed Patel and now the roles have been reversed.

Patel's solid rise to the top is an indication of how various groups in the Congress feel Azad has nothing against him. Both Kesri and Pawar asked their men to vote for him which they did. Patel will now work towards consolidation of his powers in the party. He is a man to be watched.

The Muslim vote was handled in a strategic manner: While Singh was backed unanimously, Azad's support was much lesser in this segment and Tariq Anwar, the third Muslim in the CWC, almost entirely owed it to Kesri. So even though the Congress has three Muslims in the elected CWC component after many years, all three were elected for different reasons.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.