Observers suggested that election of a Gorbachev ally would enable him to surrender completely the day-to-day running of the party in order to concentrate on the presidency.

Aleksandr N. Yakovlev, the party propaganda chief and a Gorbachev ally, said at a party conference last week that the problem was not backtracking on glasnost, but a tendency toward sloppy reporting that threatened to throw glasnost into disrepute.

His departure was all the more surprising because he had been thought to be a Gorbachev ally.

Boris Yeltsyn, first secretary of the Moscow Communist Party organization and a Gorbachev ally, privately conveyed that message during a visit to Managua last March.

Mr. Yeltsin, who had been a prominent Gorbachev ally, was removed as head of the Moscow party organization after telling a meeting of the Central Committee on Oct. 21 that economic changes were moving too slowly and producing few tangible results.

Politburo's Power Curbed The new Politburo, heavy with Gorbachev allies, is supposed to serve as an internal policy board for the party rather than as the oligarchic underpinning it was for over six decades.

The Future Kremlin and How the U.S. Will Deal With It A Who's Who of Hard-Liners: A onetime Gorbachev ally and the coup makers behind him.

With the party endorsement of his proposals today, and the promotion of more Gorbachev allies to the ruling Politburo, he also dispelled a growing conventional wisdom among Western analysts that his campaign was flagging, faced by top-level opposition.

By the end of the year, the ruling Politburo, now fattened with Gorbachev allies, is expected to approve supplementary directives this year that will diminish the power of central planning committees and ministries to dictate to industry.

Mr. Razumovsky is a Gorbachev ally who was promoted to a nonvoting seat on the ruling Politburo in February.