Sitaram Kesri

Sitaram Kesri (born November 1919 in Danapur , Patna , Bihar ; † October 24, 2000 in Delhi ) was an Indian politician of the Indian National Congress (INC), of which he was president from 1996 to 1998.

biography

MP and Minister

After attending school, Kesri worked as a social worker in his hometown and joined the national movement as a 13-year-old in 1932. In 1942 he was an active member of the "Quit India" movement of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and was therefore arrested several times.

In the 1967 elections he was elected a member of the Lower House (Lok Sabha) and was a member of this parliament during the fourth legislative period between 1967 and 1971 as a representative for the constituency of Katihar . He then became a member of the House of Lords (Rajya Sabha) in July 1971 and represented the state of Bihar until July 1986 after his re-elections in April 1974 and July 1980 . In addition, he became president of the INC in the state of Bihar in 1973.

In 1980 he was also elected treasurer of the Indian National Congress and held this office for 16 years under the party presidents Indira Gandhi , Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao until 1996. During this time he was also a minister on several occasions when the party leaders were prime ministers of India as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and in 1993 as Minister of Welfare. During this time a comprehensive report on people with disabilities was produced .

In April 1988 Kesri again became a member of the Rajya Sabha and, after being re-elected, represented the state of Bihar until April 2000.

President of the Congress Party

After PV Narasimha Rao's forced resignation as party president, Kesri succeeded him in September 1996 and retained this position until he was replaced by Sonia Gandhi in March 1998. On January 3, 1997, he was officially president of the INC.

His tenure as party president was marked by the lack of support from the party base and led to a further split within the INC. The most controversial situation arose when he withdrew support for the government of Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda , leading to the overthrow of the United Front government in April 1997. Nevertheless, a compromise was reached shortly afterwards with the election of the Janata Dal candidate , Indian Kumar Gujral , as prime minister, who in turn received the support of the Congress Party.

In June 1997 he was elected President of the INC and was able to prevail against his two rival candidates Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot .

In the first week of November 1997, parts of the report by the Jain Commission investigating the allegations of conspiracy in the assassination attempt on Rajiv Gandhi appeared in the press. It reported that the Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party's Jain Commission alleged relations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization involved in Gandhi's assassination . The DMK was part of the United Front government coalition and provided three ministers in the Gujral cabinet. The Congress Party then demanded the dismissal of these three ministers, whereupon between November 20 and November 28, 1997 an exchange of letters between Kesri and Prime Minister Gujral took place. Ultimately, the prime minister refused to dismiss the ministers, so that on November 28, 1997, the INC withdrew its support from the Gujral government. When a sustainable government was not subsequently formed, the Lok Sabha was dissolved, opening the way for early elections.

However, the Congress party was not fully prepared for these early elections, so that several INC leaders such as Rangarajan Kumaramangalam and Aslam Sherkhan publicly expressed their displeasure with Kesri's leadership and resigned from the Congress party. Shortly thereafter, Sonia Gandhi was instead Kesri's top candidate for the upcoming election campaign. Although she drew large crowds at her campaign events, Sonia Gandhi failed to win the elections. In the elections marked by numerous bomb attacks, the INC only achieved 140 of the 552 parliamentary seats.

After the election defeat, Kesri was voted out of the Congress Party's working committee in March 1998 and Sonia Gandhi was appointed party president instead. However, due to his many years of service, Gandhi appointed him a member of the party's working committee for life.

However, another conflict arose on May 19, 1999 when Kesri was detained at party headquarters with other members of the working committee after another split in the INC and the founding of the Nationalist Congress Party by Sharad Pawar, Purno Agitok Sangma and Tariq Anwar came. After this incident, Kesri no longer played a prominent political role and was ultimately not nominated again as a candidate for the INC in the April 2000 elections for Rajya Sabha .

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Rajya Sabha
• Entry on the Lok Sabha homepage
• Biography on the homepage of the congress party

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Parliament of India ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (May 10, 1993) 
2. ↑ Persons with Disabilities in Society ( Memento of the original dated August 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) 
3. ^ Robert L. Hardgrave, Stanley A. Kochanek: India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation , pp. 103, 304, 438.
4. ^ India time table
5. ↑ 1997: Villain of the Year. Villain No. 1: Sitaram Kesri Outlook India, January 5, 1998.
6. ^ Robert L. Hardgrave, Stanley A. Kochanek: India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation , pp. 305, 330.
7. ^ Robert L. Hardgrave, Stanley A. Kochanek: India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation , p. 306.