Congress President Sonia Gandhi would often call Makhan Lal Fotedar a 'Clever Brahmin' for his statecraft. 

After Rajiv Gandhi’s death and Sonia Gandhi’s reluctance to join politics, Fotedar worked to instal PV Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister. 

But some years later, he fell out with Rao over the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992. At a cabinet meeting later in the day, Fotedar blamed Rao for not taking sufficient steps to prevent the demolition. 

He resigned from the Rao cabinet and engineered a split in the Congress. In this, he was backed by Arjun Singh, ND Tiwari and Sheila Diskhit and the breakaway party came to be known as Congress (Tiwari). 

Fotedar rejoined the Congress after Sitaram Kesri became the party president in 1996. 

In 1998, he persuaded Sonia Gandhi to become the Congress President.

Though Fotedar remained a member of the powerful Congress Working Committee and the party's central election panel, he felt sidelined in the later years of his life. 

The isolation was widely attributed to his 2015 political memoir, 'The Chinar Leaves' in which he questioned Rahul Gandhi's leadership and claimed that Indira Gandhi had wished to see granddaughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra join politics given that she was the rightful heir to her legacy. 

In the first picture, Sitaram Kesri is seen welcoming Fotedar, Arjun Singh and ND Tiwari back in the Congress fold in 1996.

In the second photo also, Fotedar is seen with the three leaders besides Mohsina Kidwai.

In the third picture, Fotedar is sitting and having a discussion with colleagues.

To be continued.....