The Sitaram Kesri case: How dynasty trumped ethics

The Sonia camp said that the Congress had failed to capitalise on Sonia’s charisma because of organisational weaknesses. Sonia accepted the argument and started toying with the idea of taking over the party. She, however, made it clear that unless Kesri stepped down gracefully and invited her to take over, she would not opt for a coup. But Chacha was in no mood to oblige. The next chapter of the power struggle was put into motion. Worried CWC members held a series of secret conclaves to work out how to ‘install’ Sonia at the helm. Pranab Mukherjee, AK Antony and Jitendra Prasada were given the task of sounding Kesri out about retiring ‘gracefully’. Initially, Kesri’s ‘nephews’ Ahmad Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad approached him. But Kesri laughed off the proposal.

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