MUMBAI, May 9: National general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Pramod Mahajan today said the Congress will split vertically if Sonia Gandhi imposes her leadership on the party. Mahajan was addressing a press conference here today.

Dismissing the news of Sonia formally joining the Congress as no surprise (``Sonia had joined the party on March 21, and the Congress withdrew support to the Gowda government on March 30,'') Mahajan said, ``Sonia cannot be more powerful than Rajiv Gandhi (was).'' He said Rajiv had proved so unsuccessful that he presided over reducing the strength of the Congress in the Lok Sabha from 425 in 1984 to about 220 in 1989, and would have perhaps won about 143 seats in 1991, if he had survived. If Rajiv, in his heyday had proved so unsuccessful then Sonia was not going to make a big difference to the party, Mahajan said. He said Indian society gives a secondary status to women even if it helps perpetuate dynastic rule.

``It is, however, true that the Congress needs a crowd puller,'' he quipped.Mahajan also demanded a discussion among political parties on the suggestion of the Supreme Court that the CBI should be given ``limited autonomy''.

He said there was also a need for a rethink on the provisions requiring permission of the secretary of a department or Governor before the CBI initiated prosecution against either bureaucrats or politicians.

Mahajan said in most of the cases of major scams, the two were in tandem, and it seemed contradictory that when a government agency like the CBI wanted to prosecute somebody, it had to seek permission of the government.

In that context he said though the CBI director had declared his intention to chargesheet Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, that action had not come about yet.

In the case of Bofors also, he said, the CBI director had said that the cases would be filed by April 30, but almost ten days had passed since.Mahajan informed that the Kudal meeting would consider the organisational elections, the process of which was to begin at village-level from July, and culminate in the election of national President in November. It would also consider the membership drive that was on in the State. An assessment of the alliance government in the State was also on the agenda of the meeting.

He also informed of the `Swarnajayanti Yatra' to be undertaken by party president L K Advani and other leaders in commemoration of 50 years of the country's freedom. The `yatra' would start in Mumbai from the August Kranti Maidan on May 18, and would conclude on July 10 at the Red Fort in Delhi.Asked to comment on the law and order situation in the State, Mahajan criticised the judgment of the Nagpur Bench of the HC, which had fined senior police officers and the Additional Chief Secretary, Home, in its order releasing underworld don Arun Gawli.

He said it was a very unfortunate judgment and it was difficult to agree with the HC. Mahajan said he was only criticising the punishment meted out to officers by the HC when the court had found no malafides in their official actions. It would be difficult for officers fighting criminal gangs to take action, he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.