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Congress climbs down, agrees to support third front

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Climbing down from its rigid stance, the Congress today indicated its willingness to support a coalition government to keep communal forces at bay.

Till yesterday, the Congress was cocksure that it would be able to form a minority government with outside support from the rest.

But with the Samajwadi Party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and the All-India Forward Bloc declaring their resolve to keep out of the Congress plan, spokesman Arjun Singh sang a different tune today, and said his party is for the consolidation of secular forces.

Significantly, he clarified that it was wrong to say his party had not consulted the Samajwadi Party before going to the President to claim to have the support of 272 members of the Lok Sabha.

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav had wondered how the Congress could have made such a claim without consulting his party.

Today, Arjun Singh said the possibility of a secular coalition government is "very strong". He avoided explaining why his party had taken a rigid stand earlier, and merely stressed the need for "secular" forces to united and stave off the "communalists".

That the gulf between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party had widened became apparent after today's press conference by Mulayam Singh's lieutenants Amar Singh and Mohammed Azam Khan. Both made no attempt to hide their anger at the Congress and said Sonia Gandhi's party is more dangerous than the Bharatiya Janata Party because it "wears a secular mask".

The two politicians pointed out that the Congress has been attacking their party, with some of its members singling the Samajwadi Party out as a bigger adversary than even the BJP. So it was time to part ways, Amar Singh said.

But the Congress chose to ignore this onslaught. Arjun Singh said his party had begun talks to form a secular alternative, including with Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Apart from the Samajwadi Party and the RSP-AIFB combine, which together have 27 MPs, the Bahujan Samaj Party with five MPs and the Samajwadi Janata Party with one (Chandra Shekhar) had also distanced themselves from the Congress plan for a minority government. Left with no option, the party's leadership apparently decided to make the best of a bad situation. Hence the move to form a coalition.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party today lashed out at the Congress, accusing it of only being interested in destabilising the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. BJP vice-president Krishan Lal Sharma criticised the Communists too, saying that they are playing the role of destabilisers because they have become irrelevant in national politics.

With Sharma at the press briefing was legal luminary and former Indian high commissioner for the United Kingdom L M Singhvi, who has been consulted by several presidents in the past on matters constitutional. Singhvi said if the Congress does not have the support of 270 or more MPs, the BJP-led coalition, which has that number, "cannot conceivably be overlooked and excluded in the second round".

EARLIER REPORTS:
Congress not averse to a coalition
Mulayam Singh keen on third front government, calls Naidu

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