Congress adamant on Deve Gowda sacrifice; no go says UF

The Congress will support the United Front form the next government, provided it replaces Caretaker Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar said on Saturday.

The Congress Working Committee will meet in a day or two to finalise the party's future course. Proposals, if any, from the UF would be considered by the CWC, he added.

Pawar parried questions about whether his party intended to form the next government. The working committee would decide whether the party should lend support from outside or participate in a coalition government, he said.

Party chief Sitaram Kesri held discussions with senior party leaders and reviewed the political situation on Saturday evening.

The UF steering committee decided on Saturday morning that it would not replace Front leader Deve Gowda to shore up the government.

Front spokesperson S Jaipal Reddy told newspersons after the meeting that there was also no question of the 13-party combine supporting the Congress or the BJP form a government. He also ruled out sharing power with the Congress.

Reddy admitted that informal contacts between the Front and the Congress are still on at various levels to avert a mid-term election, but added, ''We do not know who is calling the shots in the party (the Congress).''

The Front leaders indicated that with Kesri making Deve Gowda's ouster a prestige issue, it was difficult do serious business with the Congress any more. The leaders also said the Congress had joined hands with the BJP in pulling down the Deve Gowda government and said it would send wrong signals if the UF went back to the Congress again.

Sitaram Yechuri, Politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said the Front could not afford a political deal with the Congress, especially after Deve Gowda's vitriolic attack on Kesri on Friday.

Meanwhile, as the Congress and the United Front wrangled themselves almost into a impasse, the Bharatiya Janata Party authorised Atal Bihari Vajpayee to explore possibilities of forming a government at the Centre.

The decision was taken at the two-hour joint meeting parliamentary parties of the BJP and its allies -- the Akali Dal, the Haryana Vikas Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Shiv Sena and the Samata Party.

Sources said the meeting, chaired by BJP president Lal Kishinchand Advani, endorsed the suggestion that the BJP should not allow the Congress to take advantage of the present political crisis and form the government.

The meeting also set up a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Dr Murli Manohar Joshi to suggest amendments to the Finance Bill. The party has decided to ''press'' for amendments, indicating that the BJP combine will not let the Budget be passed unchecked.

Vajpayee and leaders of the party's allies began closed-door consultations soon after the meeting. There will be another meeting on April 20.

Asked if the BJP had received feelers from any political party, Jaswant Singh, its deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, said, ''We are watching the developing situation. Even if we have any such proposal it is not right... to reveal it at this juncture.''

''We are open to all options," Vajpayee said. "If we feel that we are in a position to provide a stable government, only then will we stake a claim to form the government.''

Advani said the Congress play on 'secular' issues had failed with the fall of the UF government. In fact, that attitude had made the BJP stronger, he said, claiming it had been proved that there could be no stability at the Centre if the BJP, which had received the people's mandate, was kept out of power by an ''unholy alliance''.

His party, he said, was ready for a mid-term election, but, being the largest single party in Parliament, it was keeping its options open regarding the possibility of forming a government.

For the first time since the BJP-BSP formed a coalition government in Uttar Pradesh, BSP leader Kanshi Ram formally attended a BJP-sponsored meeting. Before leaving, he told the BJP leaders that the BSP would stand by whatever decision it took.

Akali Dal leader Surjeet Singh Barnala said from now on the BJP and its allies should work as one unit and not as ''supporting'' parties. Vajpayee responded, saying all decisions relating to Parliament would be taken ''in consultation'' with the BJP's allies.

BJP general secretaries Pramod Mahajan and M Venkaiah Naidu said ''informal'' discussions are on with regional parties ''including some Congressmen.'' Naidu, however, added that the Congress MPs did not have the ''strength'' to break away and form a separate group.

Barnala said talks with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam were on and that he had been receiving telephone calls in this connection. The Akali leader saw a ''change'' in Vajpayee's attitude towards regional parties. ''That is the reason why they are getting attracted to the BJP,'' he explained, assuring the BJP leadership that regional parties are ''now in a position to take mature decisions.''