Feverish activity over Cong. presidential poll

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 25. The notification of the election for the Congress president, which was supposed to take place today, was put off by a day as a mark of respect for Mr. Sitaram Kesri who died on Tuesday night. The notification will now be issued tomorrow and the nominations will take place on Friday and Saturday.

The Congress president, it is reliably learnt, will file her nomination papers on Saturday and, already, the party heavyweights, regional satraps and senior leaders have begun arriving in the Capital to be present when she files her papers. Mr. Jitendra Prasada, the man widely tipped to challenge Mrs. Gandhi for the Congress presidentship, however, remained non- committal about his plans citing the non-availability of the membership list.

The party's central election authority (CEA), charged with the responsibility of conducting the elections, was frantically trying to coax the Pradesh election authorities to submit their list of members before the last date of the nominations on October 28. According to the party constitution, the list of at least 75 per cent members must be available before starting the Congress president's election. The CEA chairman, Mr. Ram Niwas Mirdha, pointed out this evening that ``unless the 75 per cent mark is met with it would be difficult to start the process''.

Mr. Mirdha told reporters this evening that he had received the lists of PCC members from Bihar, Punjab, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Haryana, Manipur, Orissa and Gujarat. The lists from West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh were expected by late tonight. The U.P. membership list, along with the rest of States - save Kerala and Assam - were being finalised and it would reach him in the next few days, but not later than Saturday.

While Mr. Mirdha was hopeful of most of the lists being in place before Saturday, he also pointed out that Assam and Kerala had been unable to compile their lists because of their preoccupation with the local bodies election and the revision of the electoral lists.

In a separate development, the feuding duo from Kerala - Mr. Karunakaran and Mr. A.K. Antony - today appeared to have buried the hatchet at a meeting with the Congress president. According to the general secretary in-charge of the State, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, the two leaders have left the choice of the CLP leader and the PCC to Mrs. Gandhi. ``It has been left to the Congress president and she will decide when she wants to.'' When the time came for such a decision to be made, it would be kept in mind that both the posts did not go to one side, he said.

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