Deve Gowda sends feelers to the BJP

Congress president Sitaram Kesri’s dubious heroism has led to hectic political lobbying and backroom manoeuvring in the capital. Key political players shuttled between party offices on Tuesday alternatively to save or to bring down Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda when he seeks a vote of confidence on April 11.

Two days after the Congress withdrew its support, it was Deve Gowda who launched a frenzied operation to save his 10-month-old United Front government. In a surprising development, the prime minister sent feelers to the Bharatiya Janata Party soliciting its outside support to ward off the Congress challenge.

On Tuesday, Deve Gowda sent a Rediff On The NeT columnist -- who must remained unnamed for now -- to senior BJP leaders Lal Kishinchand Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee to negotiate the possibility of the party extending unconditional support to the UF government.

The columnist, who is credited with being a catalyst for the formation of the BJP-Bahujan Samaj Party government in Uttar Pradesh last month, apprised the prime minister of the BJP’s demands vis-a-vis its favour to the UF regime.

Sources claimed the BJP has set three conditions for supporting the Deve Gowda government. First, it wants the prime minister to leave the company of the Left parties, with whom the BJP is unwilling to shake hands for obvious ideological reasons.

Second, the BJP leaders are also uncomfortable with its sworn enemy, Samajwadi Party chief and Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. The BJP has argued that dumping Yadav and his 16 SP MPs will give credibility to the alliance it forged with the BSP last fortnight.

The third crucial requirement is that Deve Gowda announce a mid-term poll as and when the BJP demands it. In return, the BJP will support the UF government from outside and allow the government to pass the 1997-98 Budget in Parliament.

Satish Aggarwal, a former Union minister who is close to Advani, told Rediff On The NeT that his party is willing to back the UF government if Deve Gowda and his partners agree to these demands.

"There is nothing wrong in the BJP helping Deve Gowda continuing in power. But we will not allow the Left parties and Mulayam Singh Yadav to stay with him," the BJP leader said.

Aggarwal claimed that Deve Gowda has taken a soft line towards the BJP and its sister organisations in the past. "In 1995," he said, "Deve Gowda had praised the Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh during a meeting to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Emergency."

But political observers feel that Deve Gowda's desperate plan to seek the BJP's help for his government's survival is unlikely to take off as some of the UF constituents -- the Tamila Maanila Congress, the Telugu Desam Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham -- will spurn any association with Advani and company.