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RSP, Forward Bloc adamant about opposing Congress-led government

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Opposition's attempt to cobble together an alternative government received an emphatic jolt today with the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All-India Forward Bloc, which together have seven members in the Lok Sabha, rejecting the concept of a Congress-led coalition headed by Sonia Gandhi.

The development mocked Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav's loud claim in the Lok Sabha that the Opposition would be able to form an alternative government within five minutes of the downfall of the coalition led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

A meeting of all the parties comprising the Left Front at Ajoy Bhavan, the headquarters of the Communist Party of India, failed to convince the RSP-AIFB combine to support a Congress-led government.

Both Abani Roy (RSP) and Debabrata Roy (AIFB) told Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet and his CPI counterpart Ardhendu Bardhan that they could not support a Congress-led government, come what may.

Abani Roy said the RSP wanted to be equidistant from both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party as they are "capitalist parties". The Forward Bloc politician had an identical viewpoint.

Surjeet, however, told reporters that the Left parties would continue the meeting tomorrow in an attempt to persuade the RSP and the AIFB to change their stand.

In a new twist, some Leftist politicians floated the idea that in the circumstances, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu may be the best candidate to head an alternative government.

Significantly, Basu did not reject the proposal outright. But CPI-M politicians pointed out that the party politburo would have the final say.

Basu's name was suggested as the consensus candidate after the 1996 election as well, only to be spiked by the politburo. A piqued Basu had then called it a "historic blunder". H D Deve Gowda had then become prime minister.

As if the RSP-AIFB objection to a Congress-led alternative was not enough, Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha spokesman Amar Singh demanded that the alliance of the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav should find place in the new government.

Mulayam Singh has already said that with 20 MPs, his party cannot be ignored in the effort to form a new government.

All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha, the woman who started it all, took strong exception to Tamil Maanila Congress president G Karuppaiah Moopanar's statement that her party should be kept out of the new government.

AIADMK politician K M R Janarthanam told reporters that his party could not be prevented from participating in the proposed government.

Amar Singh's visit to the Maurya Hotel in New Delhi, where Jayalalitha is staying, triggered speculation in political circles, though Singh claimed to have gone there not to meet her but "a friend".

The insistence of the Samajwadi Party on being included in the new government may also prove to be irksome to Laloo Yadav. The RJD chief has made no secret of his gratitude to Congress president Sonia Gandhi for helping to reinstate his wife Rabri Devi's government in Bihar. Political pundits, therefore, are keenly watching to see how he reacts to the Samajwadi Party's stand.

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