Congress prepares to withdraw support to United Front soon

George Iype in New Delhi

Taken aback by the pressure tactics used by the United Front government to browbeat its leaders, a belligerent Congress party now plans to withdraw support to Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda much earlier than it had wanted to.

While senior Congress leaders have begun informal consultations to work out a strategy for bringing down the UF government, many Janata Dal MPs's disenchantment with Deve Gowda's leadership has brought cheers to the Congress camp.

The immediate provocation for the Congress to consider severing its ties with the 13-party coalition government is the interrogation of Congress president Sitaram Kesri by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday.

Congress leaders have alleged that the order to probe assets and property owned by Kesri and members of his family came from the Prime Minister's Office. The PMO on Tuesday denied the Congress charge, but the issue continues to vitiate the already tense Congress-UF relationship.

Other issues that have created a rift between the Congress and the Front are the government's inability to curb inflation and the ambiguity of its foreign investment policies.

The Congress Parliamentary Party will meet on Friday, January 24, to chalk out a UF-bashing plan.

"We can not sit idle when the Prime Minister's Office is using the government investigative machinery to implicate Kesriji in false cases," Congress MP Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told Rediff On The NeT.

"It is demeaning that the Congress-supported government is resorting to cheap political tactics," he added.

Though the CPP meeting is being convened to discuss the government's economic performance, Dasmunshi said it will "debate the crucial support that we have given Deve Gowda."

Sources in the Congress also revealed that several constituents of the Front and a section of Janata Dal MPs are suspicious of the prime minister's alleged tendency to fix anyone who is a potential threat to his government's survival.

A senior Congress leader told rediff On The NeT that "if Deve Gowda goes ahead with his anti-Congress onslaught, the Congress leadership will be compelled to lure JD president and Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav to break away from the Front and support a Congress-led government."

"Kesri and Laloo Yadav" he claimed, "are good friends and they can turn the tables against Deve Gowda."

The Bihar chief minister has been unhappy with the prime minister for some months now. That tenuous relationship deteriorated further when the CBI interrogated Laoo Yadav in the Rs 10 billion animal fodder scam last fortnight. The Congress hopes it can rope in the 22 JD MPs from Bihar, many of whom are said to be quite close to Laloo Yadav, if the plan to install a Kesri-led government takes shape.

The Congress's strained relations with the UF government figured prominently during discussions Kesri has had with senior party leaders K Karunakaran, Ahmed Patel, Sharad Pawar and Dr Manmohan Singh in recent days.

The Congress is also planning to attack the government's proposed hike in petroleum products and sugar prices. Though the Deve Gowda government plans to present a pro-poor Budget this year, the Congress does not want to share the blame for a Budget which it expects will lead to inflation.