First rumblings in UF; Mulayam roots for Congress

Mulayam’s line is contrary to the stand taken by UF spokesman S Jaipal Reddy who on Thursday ruled out any truck with the Congress in any part of the country. He had said the UF would be “equally anti-Congress and anti-BJP.”Hours after Mulayam’s press conference, Janata Dal President Sharad Yadav said there was no question of the UF having any truck with the Congress.

“In any case such questions will have to be discussed and decided by the UF steering committee,” he said.

Mulayam however asserted that there was no question of the SP quitting the UF. “We don’t want to weaken the UF which was formed on the issues raised by us. We have sacrificed the most to keep the UF strong and united,” he stressed.

“I am happy that the UF stood united during the recent crisis unlike in 1968, 1977 and 1989 when, in similar circumstances, we broke up,” he added.Elaborating on the strategy in UP, he asked: “Why should we ensure the defeat of a Congress candidate if he is in a strong position to defeat the BJP in a particular constituency ?”

The SP chief, when asked if his party would take the help of the Bahujan Samaj Party to fight the BJP, refused to comment, pointing out however that his party had “suffered twice” at the hands of the BSP.

Even in Maharashtra, he stated, his party would not do anything that would be of any advantage to the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance at the hustings. In Bihar, where the BJP-Samta Party alliance had emerged as a powerful force, the SP would have no truck with Laloo Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, he declared. In the same breath, he referred to the role played by Laloo in scuttling his chances of becoming prime minister. Mulayam said he would convince the UF about the SP’s need to have a tactical understanding with the Congress in UP.

“The coalition leaders should ponder over this issue seriously,” he added. But at the same time, he said, there would be no national alliance with the Congress. The SP chief acknowledged that he had been none too pleased with the delay in dissolution of the Lok Sabha after the Congress withdrew support to the Gujral government.