Left counters Congress attack on development

To Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s olive branch that the Left parties were his friends, the Left Front reacted sharply questioning this premise. The Left parties also described as ‘motivated’ the Congress charge that the red brigade had done nothing for development.

CPI(M) leader Biman Bose was forthright in repeating what the Left has been saying in its propaganda leaflets. “Manmohan Singh is not a politician, but an economist and he is serving the interest of the IMF and World Bank,” he said from the very capital of the state whose chief minister (Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) Singh described as “my friend”.

Both groups also took positions that ranged them against each other in a post-election scenario. Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh told a TV channel that the party would sit in the Opposition if it got below 160 seats and the UPA secured less than 200 seats. CPI(M) leader and MP Sitaram Yechury told reporters in Kolkata: “The possibility of a non-Congress, non-BJP government is growing by the day. There is a re-thinking among the constituents of the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA”.

 

Internally, the realistic assessment in the Congress was that although the party would cross 160 seats and would emerge as the single largest party in the 15th Lok Sabha, it would have to work very hard to reach the 272 mark.

But there was no clarity on how it would reach that figure: top sources told Business Standard that if Sharad Pawar — or others — believed the index of unity would be more around their name than that of Manmohan Singh, they were living in a ‘fool’s paradise’. There was no question of supporting anyone else as the prime minister of the UPA if the Congress was the single largest party. The Congress, this time, would also not like to support any other formation from the outside. “We have seen what HD Deve Gowda did when he was the prime minister. They take our support but not our suggestions for governance,” a top Congress leader said.

The assessment in the Congress camp is that it is likely to emerge as the single largest in the 15th Lok Sabha and will be asked by the President to furnish letters of support to it. The party has, as of now, ruled out forming a minority government because “we would not like to be seen as forming a 13-day government as if we are desperate to get into power”, a party strategist said.

The hunt for allies that will make up the deficit will begin on May 17, but “we will have to see how much we’ll have to give in return for what”, the strategist added.

At this point, the party sees as its biggest assets, Naveen Patnaik in Orissa (who will need the Congress to form a government in the Orissa Assembly and will have to offer support to the Congress at the Centre as the price); and the Trinamool Congress, which is seen as getting as many as 14 seats out of the 42 in West Bengal.

But if even this doesn’t add up to the magic figure of 272, the Congress is worried it might have to swallow its pride and go to Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, cap in hand.