Congress Stakes Claim To Form Govt

The Deve Gowda-led United Front government doddered on the brink yesterday and the country seemed headed for a prolonged bout of political crises as the Congress, resoundingly rejected in last Mays polls, staked its claim to form a government immediately after withdrawing outside support to the nine-month old UF government.

Even as President Shankar Dayal Sharma went into a huddle with constitutional experts on his options, the UF government vowed not to resign and declared its intentions to settle the issue in parliament. Prime Minister Deve Gowda made no comment, but party spokesman Jaipal Reddy said, There is no question of the resignation of the government. If required, the government will face the Lok Sabha and we hope that the President will give the United Front a fair opportunity to do so.

 

On their part, the UF constituents rallied strongly behind Deve Gowda , calling a meeting of the steering committee today. We are all united behind Deve Gowda, said Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh, not a little surprised at the Congress adducing the UFs failure to address sensitive defence issues and security requirements of the country among the reasons cited for its withdrawal.

From Hyderabad, the UF convenor Chandra Babu Naidu reiterated that the United Front was united. The Left parties also vowed support, with the wily old EMS Namboodiripad identifying fear among Congressmen of the law catching up with their misdeeds as the real reason for the precipitate act. But at the end of a day of high drama, the fact remained that the government had the support of only 188 members in the 545-strong Lok Sabha, 85 short of a simple majority.

Notwithstanding the confidence of the United Front partners, the fact remains that they would need to precipitate almost a two-third split of the 139 member strong Congress in the Lok Sabha if the government is to survive.

In a day of unexpected developments, Congress president and Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) leader Sitaram Kesari surprised not a few of his own partymen, and the nation at large, by driving down to the Rashtrapati Bhawan shortly after noon to hand over a sharply worded three-page letter withdrawing the partys support. The reasons, Kesari later told a jostling mob of several hundred presspersons at the AICC office afterwards, were as varied as they were vague: determined efforts to marginalise the Congress; total collapse of law and order; drift in the economy leading to rising prices and unemployment; failure to consolidate secular forces and control communal elements (read Congress rout in Punjab and the formation of the BJP-BSP government in Uttar Pradesh); lack of cohesive functioning; and, quaintly enough, ignoring the principle of collective responsibility of the Cabinet which is imperative for any parliamentary form of government.

Interested observers, the BJP expressed little surprise but promptly cancelled their national council meet in Thiruvananthapuram and rescheduled a national executive meeting in Delhi. Parliamentary party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee said a mid-term poll was inevitable but admitted to be under pressure from his party men to stake his claim yet again to form the government since the BJP continues to be the single largest party in parliament.

Janata Dal national president Laloo Prasad Yadav, whose relations with the Prime Minister have been strained in recent times, described the Congress move as very unfortunate. However, he added that Come what may, we will not allow communal forces to come to power at the Centre. We are prepared to pay any price for it.

This statement is being interpreted by some analysts as presaging plans to engineer a re-alignment of forces to prevent the BJP from gaining more ground through fresh elections in case the Gowda government does fall.

G K Moopanar (TMC) and M Karunanidhi (DMK), who are seen as crucial to the Congress-Is hopes of forming a government, remained closeted for over 30 minutes at Karunanidhis residence in Madras. Later, they told reporters that they would decide about their future course of action after attending the steering committee meeting.

Political analysts were also intrigued by Union finance minister and TMC leader P Chidambarams cryptic comment to wait and watch.

Former Prime Minister V P Singh, who played a key role in cobbling together the 13-party coalition, described the Congress action as very short-sighted and called upon the UF leaders to unitedly face the challenge.

While Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati backed the Congress move, saying it was a belated step, the Congress itself appeared to be divided over the decision to withdraw support.

Although the Congress Working Committee (CWC) unanimously backed Kesaris decision to withdraw support, at least six important CWC members were absent from the meeting, including Sharad Pawar, Rajesh Pilot, A K Antony, Ahmed Patel and Madhav Sinh Solanki.

Significantly, Sharad Pawar who was in Pune yesterday expressed surprise at the timing of the decision and the background in which it was taken. Rajesh Pilot was also caught unawares by the partys decision.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh expressed surprise over the decision, but ruled out a split in the Congress over this issue.

However, there were rumblings of a revolt within the Congress-I, with Jagannath Mishra and Suresh Kalmadi terming the decision as hasty. The withdrawal was carried out without taking the Congress Parliamentary Party into confidence, they alleged.