Cong divided on patch-up with NCP in Maharashtra

Congress President Sonia Gandhi held a meeting this evening with senior party leaders, including Pranab Mukherji, Manmohan Singh and Arjun Singh, to discuss the position the party should take.

There are two views in the party. One, that the mandate has thrown up a certain arithmetic in the Assembly so the Congress and the recently estranged NCP should team up to keep the BJP- Sena at bay. Otherwise, the combine will consolidate its hold in a State which has traditionally been a Congress bastion.

Senior Congress leaders cite the example of 1978 when a similar situation had arisen in the Maharashtra Assembly and the CongressI and the CongressS had joined hands to form a government with the chief minister belonging to one group and the deputy chief minister to the other.

The central leadership of the Congress is not unaware of the ground-level pressure that is building up in the State from the newly elected legislators of both parties who were together, till a few months ago. They are saying they shouldn8217;t lose this opportunity to form the Government 8212; as it is, they have been out of power for five years.

The hawks in the party, however, argue that Sharad Pawar, who once left the party and returned to its fold, should not be allowed to repeat it. It, they say, is not fair to those party leaders who could have joined him but remained loyal to the party leadership at some cost to themselves.

They also insist that the NCP be made to accept 8220;certain conditions8221; before the Congress decides to do business with it. During the day, party leaders talked as a precondition about an apology from Pawar for making Sonia8217;s foreign antecedents a poll issue. Chagan Bhujbal, Maharashtra president of the NCP, reacted sharply saying that while Sonia may have won in Bellary and Amethi, the country8217;s response to her was reflected in the party8217;s overall tally which has come down sharply.

Sonia Gandhi, however, is believed to have called Sushil Kumar Shinde, who is emerging as a possible Chief Ministerial candidate, to Delhi on Friday for consultations. Though Shinde, a Dalit, was originally a Pawar protege, the Maratha lobby is expected to react to his candidature. Some in the Congress seemed to be plumping for Vilas Rao Deshmukh but he is not likely to be acceptable to Pawar. Yet another name doing the rounds is that of former PCC chief Ranjit Deshmukh.

But before both parties get down to the chief ministerial possible, they have many others hurdles to cross.

Meanwhile, the BJP is closely monitoring the situation in Maharashtra and it has reportedly sent feelers to Sharad Pawar to seek his support both in Maharashtra and here. Asked if he could support the BJP-Sena combine, Pawar told The Indian Express: 8220;How can we support them?8221;

BJP general secretary in charge of Maharashtra Sanghpriya Gautam, however, asserted that the BJP-Sena would form a minority government in Maharashtra to begin with as it did in 1994 and later this would be converted into a majority with the help of Independents and others. He did not see the Congress and the NCP sinking their differences because the split was too recent and had caused a great deal of bitterness.