Sonia buys peace with Pawar, may send Prithviraj Chavan as MPCC chief
George Iype in New Delhi
In a move to pacify Congress leader Sharad Pawar, party
president Sonia Gandhi has apparently decided to pick a
Pawar loyalist as the next Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee
president.
Congress sources said Sonia has made up her mind to appoint the member of Parliament from Karad,
Prithviraj Chavan, as the next MPCC chief
to ensure that the month-long confrontation between the party
leaders over the Maharashtra Rajya Sabha election fiasco peters out.
Sonia and Pawar have been on a collision course in the last month,
ever since heavy cross-voting from Congress members of the
legislative assembly resulted in the defeat of official Congress
candidate and Sonia loyalist R D Pradhan in the biennial election to
the Upper House.
Ranjit Deshmukh was then forced to resign as PCC chief
owning moral responsibility for the debacle. Though
initially Sonia did not show any inclination to consult Pawar on the
appointment of a new PCC president, party sources said the Congress
president now wants a Pawar nominee to head the state unit.
"This is a welcome change on the part of the party president. The
rigid stand taken by Sonia earlier had given the impression that she was
keen on punishing Pawar over a non-issue," a Congress MP close to Pawar
told Rediff On The NeT.
"It seems that Sonia was ill-advised by Pawar's enemies in the
party. We are happy that she does not want to precipitate her
differences with Pawar," the Pawar loyalist said.
Pawar supporters had accused that Sonia's political advisors had blown
out of proportion the Maharashtra election issue to discredit the former
defence minister and the state's chief minister before the party
president.
According to Pawar loyalists, Sonia on Tuesday sought the Lok Sabha
leader's opinion over the next Maharashtra PCC president. Pawar is learned
to have suggested two names: Chavan and former Maharashtra minister
Padamsinh Patil.
Party sources said Sonia has finally decided to appoint Chavan, as he is
considered to be a neutral person who has not given any impression of
being allied with any particular camp in the Congress. Chavan, a
technocrat-turned politician, is a Maratha who shares a good
equation with Pawar.
While Chavan's appointment as the Maharashtra PCC chief is expected
any day, it is likely to lead to considerable resentment on the part of
anti-Pawar leaders from the state like S B Chavan, A R Antulay and
Sudhakar Naik.
A few days back, the anti-Pawar group had proposed to Sonia
that either Vilasrao Deshmukh or Prataprao Bhonsle -- two senior
state leaders -- would be acceptable to them as the new PCC chief.
EARLIER REPORT:
'Whatever went wrong, somebody close to Sharad Pawar will have to be held responsible'
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