UF will survive, claims Namboodiripad

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader E M S Namboodiripad feels the United Front government in New Delhi will survive the crisis precipitated by the sudden withdrawal of support to it by the Congress.

Namboodiripad claims the 10-month H D Deve Gowda government could win a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha as a major section in the Congress party is against party president Sitaram Kesri's decision.

EMS hopes these MPs will support the government if the prime minister seeks a vote of confidence. Namboodiripad points out that Sharad Pawar, Rajesh Pilot and others do not agree with Kesri's decision and this may even lead to a split in the party.

The CPI-M patriarch says the confidence motion which the prime minister proposes to move in the Lok Sabha would put the Congress in a serious dilemma. The Congress, he feels, would neither be able to support or oppose it.

The Congress would not be able to oppose it because it would mean joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party. And it may not take such a risk as it had earned a bad name when it pushed out the V P Singh government in the company of the BJP.

The Congress's attempt to form an alternate government would also not be an easy proposition. Even if the Congress manages the required support, he says the question of who would head the government and who would be the ministers would only add aggravate the factional feud within the party.

EMS also does not see the BJP emerging stronger from a mid-term election. He claims the BJP's calculation that it would be able to improve its strength in the Lok Sabha if a general election is called is just an illusion.

Namboodiripad claims the BJP is unlikely to get any fresh support because the minorities cannot accept its concept of Hindutva.

Interestingly, he suspects the Congress decision to withdraw support to the UF is the result of a conspiracy to save some senior party leaders who are caught in criminal cases.

The bottom line, alleges EMS, is that the Congress wants these serious cases against its senior leaders to be hushed up in return for continued support to the UF government.