Cong between Mulayam and a hard place

The season of hunting with the hound and running with the hare seems to be coming to an end for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. With an allia...

The season of hunting with the hound and running with the hare seems to be coming to an end for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. With an alliance with the ruling Samajwadi Party in UP and a ‘tacit understanding’ with the BSP in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress is struggling to maintain equilibrium.

Ahead of Assembly elections in the four states, the Congress has been seeking to humour the rivals, BSP and SP, so that neither cuts into the vote-share in these states.

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Tipping this delicate balance, Nawal Kishore Sharma, Congress general secretary in-charge of UP, has written to UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav about the progress on the common minimum programme (CMP) for the government. Soon after taking over as CM, Yadav had on September 10 assured Sonia Gandhi he would form a coordination committee, comprising coalition partners, to work out a CMP.

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AICC secretary Subhodh Kant Sahay said: ‘‘Sharma has written to Yadav asking what follow up action has been taken on forming this committee. It is now going to be two months since the UP CM made that promise and the Congress wants to know what happened.’’

Reflecting the unease on the way Congress is being taken for granted, he said: ‘‘The Congress does not even know what is the basic framework of our engagement with the SP. Supporting him was not a matter of strategy but commitment.’’

Congress is said to be ready with an outline of a CMP, which will be taken up when a coordination committee is formed. A prominent feature in it is said to be a package for Dalits, a thing the Congress has been concerned about since the dropping of charges against MLA Raja Bhaiyya.

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