A Suitable Ploy: Congress to go wooing in the North

But now, electoral realism seems to be sinking in and a section of the Congress leadership is keen on working out a poll alliance on the earlier basis. Heading this school of thought is current party chief Sitaram Kesri and CWC members Pranab Mukherjee, Tariq Anwar and Sharad Pawar. This group is of the opinion that the Congress will benefit from such an arrangement and add to its chances of defeating the BJP.

Uttar Pradesh has 85 Lok Sabha seats, Bihar 54 and Madhya Pradesh 40. In the last Lok Sabha, the Congress had just five MPs from UP, two from Bihar and eight from MP. The present reasoning is that matters cannot get worse and electoral alliances with major non-BJP forces in these states can only help the party.

“Except for Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav, none of the United Front (UF) constituents have fought the BJP seriously,” Mukherjee said today implying that the Congress would try its best to have them as allies in the 1998 elections. Added Arjun Singh: “If Mulayam Singh has realised that fighting the BJP is paramount, I welcome and admire it.”

However, other CWC members like Jitendra Prasada and Madhavrao Scindia are opposed to the party being a junior partner in any alliance. Prasada feels the party must go it alone and field candidates in every possible constituency to expand its network and revitalise the party cadre.

To what extent these contradictions in the Congress will affect possible alliances remains to be seen. For example, leaders from Madhya Pradesh feel that if a Congress-BSP tie-up can be worked out in the state, it will benefit the party greatly.

Meanwhile, the party today released a five-page statement saying it was not responsible for creating any instability at the Centre. The statement holds the UF responsible for the dissolution of the Lok Sabha and weakening of secular forces. In the related press briefing, Arjun Singh charged the UF government of treating Justice Jain as the “main accused” despite his statement that the Commission report was not leaked from his office. “CBI officers are breathing down his neck trying to create an impression that he is the main accused, ” he said.