United Front in dilemma whether to support Congress-led government or not

Regional flavour: Joyti Basu would prefer to sit in the oppositionMidway through the general election, the United Front's (UF) constituents are reconciled to a hung Lok Sabha. And perhaps a diminished strength for themselves. Should the post-Sonia, regalvanised Congress push ahead of the UF in the next House, it will demand to lead any non-BJP government.It is a situation which the front would much rather avoid. The UF will then face its ultimate existential crisis. Of the many fault lines in the 14-party coalition, there is none as trenchant as the one defining its relationship with the Congress.In the last Lok Sabha the UF found it convenient to form the government with the help of the Congress. Ironically, 18 months down the line, with the roles likely to be reversed, the front, though united on the need to keep the BJP out, appears to be divided on the question of support to the Congress. "We must be prepared to make sacrifices to keep the BJP out," says Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. In politicalspeak it means the UF should be willing to support a Congress government. But Assam Chief Minister and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) chief Prafulla Kumar Mahanta will have none of it. "Forget supporting them, we are prepared to quit the front if the others decide to support them.".preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}The post-poll situation and the conflicting stands adopted by the UF constituents on the issue of support to the Congress has begun to create a problem for the front's managers. "The objective is clear. A non-BJP government has to be installed," says Prakash Karat, CPI(M) politburo member. Joyti Basu, the West Bengal chief minister, is more direct: "There is no question of forming a government with the Congress. We would prefer to sit in the opposition." Basu appears to be echoing the sentiments of the other regional parties. The TDP, locked in a fierce battle with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, and the DMK, singled out by Sonia Gandhi and the Congress for special treatment during the campaign, may not savour the prospect of being a part of the government with the Congress.The question of support to a Congress-led government could well prove to be the biggest test of the UF's resolve and unity. If the pollsters are proved correct and the Congress ends up winning more seats than the UF, the front will come under intense pressure from both within and outside to shore up a Congress-led government if only to prevent the BJP from coming to power. This in itself is bound to exacerbate the differences among the constituents. While the Left, the TDP, the DMK and the AGP have no love lost for the Congress and are involved in no-holds-barred contests with that party in their respective states, the SP and the TMC have no ideological problems with the Congress and do not share the anti-Congressism of the other constituents of the front.The front leadership has its task cut out: it has to try to paper over the differences on the issue and ward off attempts by both the Congress and the BJP to poach on individual parties. Despite the soft line adopted by some of the UF, constituents the Congress has been trenchant in its attacks on the front and is clearly looking to either form a government on its own or to break the UF. Some of the groundwork already appears to have been done. The Congress leadership has been careful in making a distinction among the different constituents. It was unsparing in its criticism of all the UF parties save the SP. Similarly, of all the UF constituents, it is the SP that the Congress chose to have a seat-sharing arrangement with in Maharashtra.The UF also has to contend with the vaulting ambition of some of its leaders. Mulayam, who lost out the prime ministership to I.K. Gujral because RJD leader Laloo Prasad Yadav threatened to split the front, has made no secret of his ambition to don the mantle should the opportunity arise. He has gone around Uttar Pradesh urging the electorate to vote a sizable number of his party candidates to the Lok Sabha to enable him to become the prime minister. Both Mulayam and TMC leader G.K. Moopanar have carefully positioned themselves to take advantage of any likely deadlock between the Congress and the UF on the leadership issue. Both are hoping to emerge as the compromise choice. Mulayam feels that the Congress, in order to win over the Left, might agree to support him. Moopanar is banking on his longstanding loyalty to 10 Janpath to find favour with the Congress, and his refusal to ditch the DMK on the Jain Commission issue to make him more acceptable to the UF.But it is not just the Congress that the UF leaders are wary of. The BJP too has been doing its bit to entice some of the constituents that are absolutely opposed to any kind of a truck with the Congress. Efforts are underway to woo the AGP and the TDP by impressing upon them the fact that a Congress government at the Centre would lose no time in destabilising their governments. For now both the AGP and the TDP have refused to play ball. "There is no question of supporting a Congress or BJP government," says TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu.The UF leadership will have to do a fine balancing act when it goes into a huddle on February 24 in Thiruvananthapuram to accommodate the diverse positions of its constituents. "We are determined to keep the BJP away from forming the government. How we do it will be worked out after the polls," says CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan. Officially the UF leaders maintain that they will be able to get a working majority on their own, but the dominant view in the front is that the combine may have to accept a Congress-led government, and in such a situation, it will not join or formally support the Congress government but will sit in the opposition and offer issue-based support with strategic abstentions during important Lok Sabha votes. In a sense, the early days of the P.V. Narasimha Rao government of 1991 are likely to be replayed.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Mar 2, 1998--- ENDS ---

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United Front in dilemma whether to support Congress-led government or not

With its constituents pulling in different directions, the dilemma before the front's managers is whether to support a Congress-led government or not.

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