Cong face-saver: Won’t rock govt

In a strategic move, the Congress made an about-turn on Saturday, inviting the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal for an alliance. The Samajwadi Party turned this down, saying it is ‘‘just too late’’ as it has already finalised names for 70 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. The remaining seats, all in western Uttar Pradesh, are with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal.

‘‘We have tried everything to keep the secular forces together, even at the cost of our own party interests, as in Bihar. We are not stuck on the number of seats but what can the Congress do if Mulayam Singh is not keen?’’ a senior Congressman said.

This, as senior leader Arjun Singh today said any talk of withdrawing support to the state government is a ‘‘total lie’’. Accusing Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh of trying to use him as an ‘‘alibi’’ for helping the BJP-RSS combine, Singh said: ‘‘The insinuation by Amar Singh that I said in Lucknow the Congress should withdraw support from the Mulayam government is a total lie…It is only out of decency that I did not say anything about this March 12 statement.’’

Though, at the moment, the Congress looks desperate for aligning with the SP, the party is set to convince the Muslim voter of UP that the Congress is doubly committed to the cause of secularism. And if the SP remains as adamant as it is now against an alliance, it would polarise the crucial 12 to 15 per cent Muslim votes in the state towards the Congress.

The Congress’ efforts received a push as senior Muslim leaders from UP met party president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday, asking her to expedite the alliance with the SP. These include Jamait-e-Islami, Jamaat-e-Ulema, All India Milli Council, All India Shia Conference, and Mehmood Madni of Deoband.

Said executive member of Jamait-e-Islami, S.Q.R. Illyasi: ‘‘We have been trying to meet both the Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders for the past 20 days to stress upon them the need to prevent splitting of the secular votes in UP…The Congress was positive and we are still waiting for time from Mulayam Singh.’’ On which way the Muslim voters would tilt in case an alliance does not work out, he said: ‘‘We will vote tactically.’’