Cong hopes Left concerns over PM will 'melt down'

New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI) Unfazed by the Left's refusal to be its "palanquin bearers" in government formation, Congress today expressed confidence that their reservations over the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would melt down soon.

As the third round of polling ended, the AICC sought to reach out to the Left parties, maintaining that "we have travelled a big distance after the nuclear deal and the Left has also realised the importance of the deal".

Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily told reporters that CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat's remarks about "some ideas" on reworking the accord showed "dilution of the Left stand" on the deal, which had led it to withdraw support to the Congress-led coalition last year.

"He has some reservations about our present Prime Minister. They will melt down. It is a matter of time," Moily, who is also AICC media department chief, told reporters, when asked about Karat's statement that a Lok Sabha member should lead the next government.

Ruling out any support to the Third Front in formation of the next government, he remarked, "you cannot have a government survive on oxygen ... Which can collapse when the tube is removed."

"There is either a Congress-led alliance or a BJP-led alliance. There is no third option available", he said.

Moily's statement is significant as it comes close on the heels of the CPI(M) foreseeing a realignment of political forces after the Lok Sabha elections in favour of the Third Front and ruling out supporting Congress in government formation.

The Congress leader insisted that the BJP would not have come to power at the Centre if "we had not allowed" the experiments of formation of governments led by V P Singh in 1989 and those by H D Deve Gowda in 1996 and I K Gujral the next year.

Noting that these non-Congress governments brought instability, he wanted the Left parties to ensure that the "confluence of secular culture" takes centrestage after the elections so that the BJP does not grow.

"In a marriage, there is one bride and one bridegroom. There cannot be so many bridegrooms. It is not Mahabharat," he said in apparent reference to several PM hopefuls in the Third Front.

He emphasised that in order for a government to be a stable affair, the leader of the single largest party is needed to head the coalition, irrespective of the fact whether he was from the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha.

"We are very comfortable with Manmohan Singh. The country is very comfortable with Manmohan Singh," he said, claiming that the Congress would emerge as the single largest party and would form the next government with support from allies.