During the negotiations the Congress insisted the UF extend support for forming a government headed by it: Surjeet

After making an abortive bid to grab power, the Congress wants a change in the United Front leadership as a ''face-saving formula,'' UF spokesperson Harkishan Singh Surjeet said on Tuesday.

Criticising the Congress Working Committee resolution on Monday, Surjeet pointed out that the Congress is still to withdraw its letter to the President staking claim to form a government.

The critique, scheduled to appear in the next issue of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) weekly, People's Democracy, says the Congress seems to be taking a dig at itself by stating that for the Congress ''political power has always been a means of serving the people''.

"It is precisely for political power that the Congress party laid claim to form the next government,'' Surjeet wrote, adding that the party put itself in an awkward position when it was unable to muster the requisite number of seats.

Surjeet quotes from the CWC resolution which stated, ''The Congress Working Committee wishes to emphasise that the Congress has never wanted to plunge the country into fresh elections." This was why, in his letter to the President, the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party and the Congress president has staked his party's claim to form a government.

''During the course of negotiations the Congress had insisted that the United Front should extend support to the Congress for forming a government headed by it.'' Surjeet wrote that the CWC resolution also sought to disclaim stories about unrest among its Lok Sabha members about the hasty and ill-conceived move by congratulating the ''Congress members of Parliament for standing united and for defeating the confidence motion''.

The very fact that the CWC had to congratulate its MPs for voting against the motion reveals the deep resentment among Congress members, Surjeet said.

The CPI-M leader said the resolution failed to mention that the Congress had to join hands with the BJP to defeat the motion despite the ''primary concern'' of the Congress being ''consolidation of secular forces in an effective manner'', he stated.

''Many Congressmen with secular traditions did feel pain at being asked to join hands with the (Bharatiya Janata Party),'' he felt, despite a sizeable number demanding a conscience vote.

Instead of addressing the criticism from its own ranks, the CWC resolution merely notes that it ''deeply regrets persistent attempts to distort the Congress position regarding withdrawal of support,'' Surjeet's critique stated.