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Formula to end Congress crisis ready

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 3. A "compromise formula'' involving a Cabinet reshuffle appears to have been worked out to solve the prolonged crisis within the Kerala unit of the Congress, and the party president, Sonia Gandhi, will, in all likelihood, unveil it after discussing the package with the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, and the senior Congressman, K. Karunakaran, in the Capital towards the end of next week.

This was disclosed by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, K. Muraleedharan, here today after meeting the three-member sub-committee set up by Ms. Gandhi to address the crisis for the second time in less than 24 hours this afternoon. "The talks have concluded, and it has been decided that both Mr. Antony and Mr. Karunakaran will come to Delhi for discussions with the Congress president next week.'' Mr. Karunakaran, who was reluctant to come to Delhi because of the harsh winter, agreed to make a day's visit after all the three members of the sub-committee — Pranab Mukherjee, R. K. Dhawan and Ahmed Patel — spoke to him this afternoon.

Till last night, there was talk of such a meeting taking place elsewhere — possibly even outside Kerala — but since Ms. Gandhi is not scheduled to leave the Capital for another 10 days, Mr. Karunakaran has been persuaded to come to Delhi. Regarding the option of Ms. Gandhi or any of the central leaders going to Kerala at this juncture, the general feeling was that this was avoidable as they would invariably be bombarded with demands from the warring factions for the removal of Mr. Antony and Mr. Muraleedharan from the offices they occupy.

Talking to reporters, the KPCC president said a final date of the meeting would be decided by the sub-committee after discussing it with Ms. Gandhi. Though he refused to confirm whether he was privy to the "solution'', he hoped it would take into account all points of views — including those of the allies of the Congress in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) — and said, "everyone will have to compromise''. And, for good measure, he reiterated, that "those who want to remain in the party would have to accept the decision of the Congress president''.

When asked, he conceded that this was applicable to him as well as the UDF convenor, Oommen Chandy, who is opposed to any formula that accommodates Mr. Muraleedharan.

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