Pawar-Sonia parleys crucial to government formation

Pawar said he was advancing his return by a day, adding that it had nothing to do with the imbroglio over cross-voting. 8220;I was scheduled to return on Wednesday. Since my work here is through, I am trying to advance my ticket by a day but my early return is subject to confirmation by the airlines,8221; he said but maintained it was not tantamount to 8220;rushing back8221;. There was no point in doing that since, he said, SoniaGandhi, was going to be anyway away from New Delhi till Monday.

Our correspondent adds from New Delhi: By a public stance in support of his followers, Leader of Opposition Sharad Pawar is cutting short his stay in London and will now return here a day earlier than scheduled thus heralding a week of intense activity in the Congress which could alter political equations in the country.

That Pawar is directly returning to Delhi indicates that the former Maharashtra Chief Minister is a disturbed man. But positions on both sides haven8217;t yet been moderated. The Pawar camp is 8220;hurt8221; that their leader is being 8220;unfairly8221; targeted while the Sonia camp is bitter that her orders were disobeyed in the RS polls allegedly by Pawar8217;s followers.

The controversy is the most serious in the Congress since Sonia took over as party president and if matters worsen, Pawar could be forced to rethink his political future. This at a time when a majority of non-BJP parties are actively seeking the Congress nod to forman alternative government in place of the current BJP-led one.

The coming week is expected to be crucial from several points: The BJP government is in a crisis over its troubles with its biggest ally, the AIADMK, which could bring the government down. Should that happen, the Congress will be forced into a cycle of events in which it is expected to play a crucial role.

Sonia has so far displayed extreme reluctance to stake claim to forming a government but should the BJP8217;s coalition experiment fall apart, both the Congress president and Pawar will be big players. Pawar currently has an alliance with the Samajwadi Party, the RPI and other Independent MPs and MLAs in Maharashtra, an arrangement which worked well for the Congress in the last Lok Sabha polls.

This alliance is by nature anti-BJP. But things could change rapidly should Pawar fail in his peace-making attempts with Sonia. A lot thus hinges on the Sonia-Pawar meeting. Sonia herself is slated to arrive here from a tour of Andhra Pradesh andKarnataka by Monday and the first thing Pawar will do is to meet her.

Pawar is upset at the attempts of his rivals to paint him as a traitor, apparently he believes CWC members Arjun Singh and Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy are 8220;guilty8221; on this score. Reddy is the Disciplinary Action Committee DAC chairman in the Congress and also headed the three-member probe team which later pointed fingers at Pawar8217;s men, Lok Sabha member Praful Patel and Maharashtra MLA Satish Chaturvedi.

Both have been issued showcause notices by Reddy and are expected to reply within the stipulated seven days time. But matters are not likely to end there unless Sonia and Pawar smoke the peace pipe in the coming days. One development, though, is that the inquiry team of Reddy, A K Antony and Rajesh Pilot is unlikely to visit Mumbai again, at least in the next few days.

Arjun Singh had declared after the June 23 CWC meeting that the team will inquire again and fix blame on others, hinting at Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal, Congressleader in the Maharashtra Legislative Council.

It is already five days hence and there are no signs that this could happen.Reddy is in Hyderabad and was originally scheduled to return here on July 2. However, Pawar8217;s early return might force Reddy to follow suit. Once all the big Congressmen are in Delhi, things are expected to hot up before Parliament resumes its Budget session on July 3.