Congress withdraws support to UF govt, stakes claim to power

George Iype in New Delhi

The Congress party on Sunday withdrew support to the 10-month- old United Front government headed by Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and staked its claim to the form a federal government.

In a swift move that caught the UF unawares, Congress president Sitaram Kesri formally informed President Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma that "the Congress is compelled to withdraw its support to the Deve Gowda government with immediate effect."

Accusing Deve Gowda and his ministerial colleagues of "marginalising the Congress and allowing urgent national issues to take a back seat," Kesri's letter to the President said the UF government had failed to check communal, divisive and separatist forces in the country.

Later addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Kesri, who is also the Congress Parliamentary Party leader, said his party is ready to take up the mantle of running the country.

He said the decision has the "unanimous approval" of all the Congress Working Committee members. "We are ready to form the government now. We can prove our majority in Parliament," the Congress chief said, calling for the President's sanction as early as possible.

The swiftly-changing political developments began unraveling on Easter Sunday morning onwards. Kesri called an informal meeting of the apex 21-member CWC which was attended by senior party leaders like K Karunakaran, K Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, Dr Manmohan Singh, R K Dhawan, Pranab Mukherjee, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Janardhan Poojary and Sudhakar Naik.

Five other important CWC members -- Sharad Pawar, A K Antony, Rajesh Pilot, Madhavsinh Solanki and Ahmed Patel -- did not attend the crucial meeting as they were out of Delhi.

But Azad told Rediff On The NeT that the members who were absent at the CWC meeting have also supported the Congress president's decision to bring down the government.

Asked how the Congress will muster enough support to prove a simple majority in Parliament, Azad said: "If Deve Gowda could form the government with 45 MPs, why can't the Congress do it with 144 MPs? We are sure of getting support from other parties."

Congress sources said the octogenarian Kesri's ambition to become prime minister has been compelled by two reasons. Firstly, it is now imperative for the Congress chief to become prime minister to facilitate his smooth re-election as president of the All India Congress Committee.

Secondly, the Congress had lost its patience in continuing to support the UF government after the Bharatiya Janata Party pulled off a coup in forming a government with Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh.

With the untimely fall of the Deve Gowda government, the political mood in the country has changed and various parties and leaders are chalking out their strategy for new alliances and combinations.

Many Congress leaders claimed the decision to oust Deve Gowda is not "sudden", but it is a part of well-laid down strategy that the party has been planning in the past few weeks.

The Congress leadership is understood to have been assured support by UF partners like the Tamil Maanila Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Telugu Desam Party, Samajwadi Party and a number of small regional parties.

The Congress at present has 144 MPs in the Lok Sabha. But it will have to get the support of 129 MPs to prove its majority in the Lower House. If the TMC, DMK, TDP and SP decided to join a Congress-led government, their combined strength in the Lok Sabha -- 71--takes the Congress-combine's figure to 225. The Congress will still be short of 48 seats to reach the simple majority figure.

The Congress, then, expects to rope in the Asom Gana Parishad, the Kerala Congress (M), the Samajwadi Janata Party, Sikkim Democratic Front, United Goa Democratic Party, the Muslim League which together have 10 MPs and 9 other Independent MPs to support a government led by Kesri.

The party also expects a split in the Janata Dal, led by its president Laloo Prasad Yadav who has been unhappy with Deve Gowda ever since the Central Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation against him on the fodder scam in Bihar.

But the Left parties which are adamant that they will neither support nor join the Congress-led government, do not expect that the key regional partners of Deve Gowda government will leave him.

"All the UF parties have shown utmost commitment to Deve Gowda's policies and programmes. How can they run away from him and align with the opportunistic Congress?" asked Communist Party of India national secretary D Raja, in a conversation with Rediff On The NeT.

Rediff On The NeT has invited Somnath Chatterjee, leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, to a chat to discuss the political situation in the country. Mr Chatterjee will be on the Rediff Chat on April 1 at 2000 hours IST (0930 hours EDT). Be there!