Cong To Avoid Mid-Term Polls

The Congress yesterday indicated that it would do its utmost to prevent mid-term elections in the country in case AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha's latest threat to withdraw support from Vajpayee government on Wednesday led to a constitutional crisis.

"Everything depends on Prime Minister A B Vajpayee," a source close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi said last evening.

If Jayalalitha withdraws support, Vajpayee might opt for a floor test, or he might recommend dissolution of the Lok Sabha, he said. In case he decides to go for a floor test, the President will have to call a special session of the Lok Sabha. If he recommends mid-term elections, the Congress will have to fulfil its obligation and form a government.

 

"It is not good for the country to have elections so frequently. Being the largest opposition party, the Congress will see to it there is an alternative government," he said. Laloo Prasad Yadav's statement at a Lucknow rally that he would not prevent Mulayam Singh Yadav from becoming Prime Minister should be seen in the "broader perspective", he added.

Jayalalitha is keeping her cards close to her chest as far as her attitude to the Congress is concerned. However, it is common knowledge that she has kept a channel open with Sonia Gandhi through Congress leader Margaret Alva. Gandhi does not depend on Subramanian Swamy, who claims to speak on behalf of Jayalalitha.

Jayalalitha walked a step towards the Congress yesterday, though not over the Cauveri issue. She also demanded the dismissal of the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra.

Over the Shrikrishna Commission report, which holds Shiv Sena guilty for inciting communal riots in Mumbai in January 1993. The Congress is already pressing for the dismissal of Joshi.

The significance of this demand is that while any subsequent government is unlikely to be able to resolve the Cauveri issue to the satisfaction of Jayalalitha, any non-BJP government would definitely be able to dismiss the Manohar Joshi government over the Shrikrishna Commission report.

The Congress Working Committee last week had discounted all possibility of the Congress forming a government and then going in for mid-term elections. "If we form a government, it has to be for the next four years. We do not want the instability to continue," the source said. But the dynamics of the present situation suggests more towards mid-term elections early next year.

To form a government, the Congress will need firm support from other parties including the Left. Both CPI and the CPI(M) will have their party congresses in the next two months and their attitude to the Congress is expected to formalise only in their party congresses.

A senior Congress functionary, who does not belong to the Sonia Gandhi's core group, however, said that Laloo Yadav had created a road block for Congress by propping up Mulayam Singh Yadav as the Prime Ministerial candidate at a joint rally at Lucknow on Sunday. "It is a veiled message to the Congress that support Mulayam Singh Yadav as Prime Minister if you are not prepared," he said.

According to him, Mulayam is not the only aspirant in case Congress does not form a government. There is H D Deve Gowda who was changed as Prime Minister due to the insistence of the then Congress President Sitaram Kesari. Then there is I K Gujral whose government was pulled down by the Congress over the Jain Commission's interim report.

With the wound inflicted by Congress on two UF governments fresh in their minds, the party could not hope to get their full support. Besides, the party also expects to reap rich electoral dividends from the fast falling image of the BJP among the common masses.