Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu in May 1991 while campaigning for parliamentary election.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu in May 1991 while campaigning for parliamentary election. The Congress won the polls, though not the majority, to form a government under PV Narasimha Rao. Sonia Gandhi, the wife of Rajiv Gandhi, had refused to enter politics.
Sonia Gandhi resisted all the pressure from "the loyalist" Congressmen to join the party. The Rao government was voted out in 1996. Sonia Gandhi did not campaign in the election. The BJP won 161 seats and the Congress got 140.
Suddenly in the winters of 1997, Sonia Gandhi announced that she would campaign for the Congress party in Lok Sabha election due for March 1998. Sitaram Kesri was the Congress president at the time.
The change in leadership equation in the Congress was swift.
Sonia Gandhi joined the party in December 1997 at its plenary session in then Calcutta. She addressed her first election rally in Tamil Nadu, the state where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.
In January, Sitaram Kesri welcomed the decision by Sonia Gandhi to join the Congress and campaign for the party in an interview with India Today.
Sitaram Kesri said, "Sonia has come as a savior." By that time it was clear that the Congress could only function under Sonia Gandhi. Demands were being made in the Congress party asking Sitaram Kesri to hand over the reins of the party to Sonia Gandhi.
But Sitaram Kesri, then 82, wanted to hold on for some time. He had some support in the party but the "rebel camp" was in majority. The Congress Working Committee passed a resolution on March 14, 1998 asking Sitaram Kesri to step down as party president.
The transfer of power in the Congress is often termed as the bloodless coup. It was dramatic and executed by the use of force.
Sitaram Kesri was reportedly locked in a room in the Congress headquarters on the Akbar Road in New Delhi to prevent him from creating obstacles in Sonia Gandhi entering the office of the Congress president.
With Sitaram Kesri locked, Sonia Gandhi entered the Congress headquarters triumphant with her supporters shouting slogans.
This was the incident what Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to in his election speech at Mahasamund in Chhhattisgarh. PM Modi said, "Sitaram Kesri, who was from a Dalit and exploited community, was not allowed to complete his five-year term as the Congress president and was removed from the post."
The Congress refuted PM Modi's claim that Sitaram Kesri was humiliated as the Congress "cannot even tolerate a Dalit, exploited and backward leader as its president." Congress leader Manish Tewari said that Sitaram Kesri was treated with "due respect".
Manish Tewari said, "As someone who was involved with his legal matters between 1996-1998 I can say it on authority" that "Kesri was a Bania OBC from Bihar and not a Dalit. However, when has the PM allowed facts or truth to stand in the way?"
Sonia Gandhi resisted all the pressure from "the loyalist" Congressmen to join the party. The Rao government was voted out in 1996. Sonia Gandhi did not campaign in the election. The BJP won 161 seats and the Congress got 140.
Suddenly in the winters of 1997, Sonia Gandhi announced that she would campaign for the Congress party in Lok Sabha election due for March 1998. Sitaram Kesri was the Congress president at the time.
The change in leadership equation in the Congress was swift.
Sonia Gandhi joined the party in December 1997 at its plenary session in then Calcutta. She addressed her first election rally in Tamil Nadu, the state where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated.
In January, Sitaram Kesri welcomed the decision by Sonia Gandhi to join the Congress and campaign for the party in an interview with India Today.
Sitaram Kesri said, "Sonia has come as a savior." By that time it was clear that the Congress could only function under Sonia Gandhi. Demands were being made in the Congress party asking Sitaram Kesri to hand over the reins of the party to Sonia Gandhi.
But Sitaram Kesri, then 82, wanted to hold on for some time. He had some support in the party but the "rebel camp" was in majority. The Congress Working Committee passed a resolution on March 14, 1998 asking Sitaram Kesri to step down as party president.
The transfer of power in the Congress is often termed as the bloodless coup. It was dramatic and executed by the use of force.
Sitaram Kesri was reportedly locked in a room in the Congress headquarters on the Akbar Road in New Delhi to prevent him from creating obstacles in Sonia Gandhi entering the office of the Congress president.
With Sitaram Kesri locked, Sonia Gandhi entered the Congress headquarters triumphant with her supporters shouting slogans.
This was the incident what Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to in his election speech at Mahasamund in Chhhattisgarh. PM Modi said, "Sitaram Kesri, who was from a Dalit and exploited community, was not allowed to complete his five-year term as the Congress president and was removed from the post."
The Congress refuted PM Modi's claim that Sitaram Kesri was humiliated as the Congress "cannot even tolerate a Dalit, exploited and backward leader as its president." Congress leader Manish Tewari said that Sitaram Kesri was treated with "due respect".
Manish Tewari said, "As someone who was involved with his legal matters between 1996-1998 I can say it on authority" that "Kesri was a Bania OBC from Bihar and not a Dalit. However, when has the PM allowed facts or truth to stand in the way?"