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Journalism of Courage
Congress today said that the question of the single largest party heading the proposed secular alliance was 8216;8216;yet to be discussed8217;8217;, but ruled out the party supporting a third front led by any one of the allies. The party today got busy fine-tuning the balancing act which party president Sonia Gandhi yesterday initiated by saying that the question of leadership of the secular alliance was open.
Party spokesperson S. Jaipal Reddy said: 8216;8216;While it is not possible to add more to what Gandhi said yesterday, the leadership question is to be decided by each party.8217;8217;
8216;8216;What all the Congress president said was that the question of leadership should be settled by each party internally. No one should impose leadership on other parties,8217;8217; Reddy said. He also specified that 8216;8216;the Congress prime ministerial candidate is Sonia Gandhi8217;8217;.
On the question whether she would be projected as the leader of the proposed secular alliance, he said: 8216;8216;We will discuss that with other parties involved.8217;8217;
Reddy also said that the question of whether the leader of the single largest party, in principle, should lead the coalition 8216;8216;will be settled by the parties concerned through talks8217;8217;.
8216;8216;Gandhi is the leader of the Congress party and it is for the other allies to think over the issue,8217;8217; he said, adding that the other parties should also make their choices known.
At the same time, Reddy categorically ruled out Congress supporting a third front and said, 8216;8216;There is no scope or space for a third front given the ground realities8230;There is no question of Congress supporting such a front.8217;8217; On the possible parties for a pre-poll alliance, he named RJD in Bihar, Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra and the Indian Union Muslim League in Kerala.
