CWC decides to support UF government

The Congress Working Committee late on Monday night decided to support a secular government to replace the 10-month-old coalition government headed by Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda that was voted out in the Lok Sabha on Friday after the Congress withdrew support to it.

Speaking to newsmen after the CWC meeting, a senior leader said the Congress will consider extending support if the United Front elected a new leader.

According to sources, the CWC decided to avoid any situation leading to the dissolution of the eleventh Lok Sabha. The two-and half hour CWC meeting was presided over by Congress president Sitaram Kesri.

According to a Janata Dal general secretary, who spoke on condition of anonymity, UF leaders like Nara Chandrababu Naidu, G K Moopanar and P Chidambaram rang up Kesri on Monday and told him about the 13-party combine's willingness to replace Deve Gowda soon. Even Deve Gowda's senior Janata Dal colleagues Sharad Yadav and party chief Laloo Prasad Yadav were in secret contact with Kesri, who had insisted that the UF could expect Congress support again once Deve Gowda was replaced.

The three UF leaders reportedly told Kesri that the decks had now been cleared and it was left to the Congress to explore another coalition government with the Front.

The UF leaders's anxiety to cement ties with the Congress after Deve Gowda's marginalisation has given Kesri a fresh lease of political life and further consolidated his grip on the party.

Some political observers feel Kesri will overlook Sharad Pawar's "lapse" in not protecting the Congress chief in Parliament, if only in the interest of party unity. Kesri would act in an identical manner in overlooking Pawar's tea party with the Congress MPs on Saturday in which many Congress MPs attacked Kesri.

Pawar displayed that he lacks the political will and courage to strike when the iron is hot. Instead of making Kesri reply why he had prepared no strategy before withdrawing support to the Deve Gowda government, Pawar opted for caution. But he showed his ambition when he let the Congress MPs berate Kesri on the floor of the Lok Sabha and later, at a tea party at his house.

Tara Shankar Sahay, United News of India

Earlier story: Kesri fights, with back to the wall