The Congress wants Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to personally call upon their president Sonia Gandhi and ‘‘initiate dialogue’’ on the nature of the Samajwadi Party-Congress relationship before the party takes a decision on whether to let its MLAs join the Mulayam-led government in Uttar Pradesh. According to former UPCC chief Salman Khurshid, as Sonia Gandhi is the leader of a national party and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok sabha, it is incumbent on Mulayam to meet her and seek the party’s cooperation in Uttar Pradesh. ‘‘We cleared support to him from the outside, but nothing further. If you are planning something bigger, it is only fair that you call upon the leader of the bigger party,’’ Khurshid said, reiterating his ant (SP) versus elephant (Congress) analogy. While Khurshid’s antipathy to a tie-up with the SP is well known, a large number of Congressmen outside UP too are wary of joining the Mulayam government. Protocol issues apart (the insistence that Mulayam and not Amar Singh hold talks with Sonia), the main reason for the delay in a decision on joining the government stems from at least four reasons. • First, the Congress wants to keep open the option of an understanding with the BSP in both the Assembly and LS polls. • Second, the Uttaranchal unit of the party, led by Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari, is believed to be against joining a Mulayam-led government. Mulayam’s decision to extend quotas to the UP hills and his strongarm tactics in dealing with the consequent agitation largely fuelled the demand for a separate hill state. He is still a hated figure there and a close alliance with him could affect the Congress’ fortunes in Uttaranchal where they are in power, this group feels. • Third, a section of the Congress fears that Mulayam will eventually break the party and lure most of its MLAs to his camp. Any tie-up will be at the cost of the Congress’ independent growth and Mulayam will prove much worse than Laloo Yadav on this front. • Fourth, the feeling that the BJP has facilitated the formation of the Mulayam government has led to severe misgivings in the Congress leadership. Many believe that as part of the BJP-SP deal, the SP could once again raise the foreign origin issue with reference to Sonia. That is why the Congress is now demanding a one-on-one meeting between Sonia and Mulayam. The real reason for this demand: Let Mulayam first commit himself to a ‘‘broader relationship’’ including an Congress-SP pact for the Lok Sabha elections if he wants the party to join his government. Otherwise, the Congress will support him from outside, even at the risk of losing some or all of its 16 remaining MLAs in Lucknow.
