NEW DELHI, June 26: The move to oust the Vajpayee Government has drawn Sonia Gandhi into a war of nerves with the non-Congress opposition parties over the installation of an alternative government at the Centre.Although the flurry of activity in the opposition camp has created the most serious crisis yet for the 100-day old Government, the BJP is hopeful that ultimately, Sonia Gandhi will not pick up the gauntlet thrown by the Chandra Shekhar gang and the Left Parties. The Government's survival depends on the skill with which she handles the pressures mounting on her.She is certainly reluctant to dislodge the BJP. Despite the signals of support sent to her personally by virtually the entire opposition, she has made it clear that she herself does not want to lead a messy coalition subject to the same pulls and pressures as the present government. At the same time, given her past experience with trusted liutenants like Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri, she is hesitant to hand over the prime ministership tosomeone other than herself, even a non-controversial political lightweight like Manmohan Singh.So far, she has parried all overtures with a demand that the offer to the Congress should be concretised in a formal proposal with the requisite numbers for a stable majority in Parliament.She is also believed to have stressed that Jayalalitha's support is not enough. ``We want the Government to collapse under its own contradictions,'' said a Gandhi loyalist. In other words, the BJP's coalition must be totally destroyed before the Congress can consider an alternative.Efforts to break the weak links in the ruling coalition are already on. The targets are the Samata Party, the Biju Janata Dal and the Trinamool Congress, all of which are beset by inner bickerings and bitter factionalism. For the past few days, the air has been thick with rumours of an imminent split in these parties. Although nothing has happened yet, the leaders are worried, so worried that BJD chief, Naveen Patnaik, hurriedly revoked hissuspension orders on five rebellious MLAs in Orissa yesterday.The battle is on in earnest. Leading the opposition attack are Chandra Shekhar, Subramanian Swamy, Mulayam Singh and Laloo Yadav. And they are being ably assisted by Congressmen hungry for power, denied to them for two long years.The crisis engulfing the Vajpayee Government has turned into a serious dilemma for Sonia Gandhi. On the one hand, all her instincts are telling her that this is not the right time to strike. On the other hand, she is acutely aware of the power play behind the scenes which could tear her own party apart, thereby destroying her political future completely.Restless Congress leaders are pressurising her with powerful arguments - that the BJP Government will force a war with Pakistan and declare an internal emergency; that the BJP Government will ensure a temple is built at Ayodhya and the Muslim vote will be lost to the Congress forever; that any delay will help the BJP to consolidate and engineer a split in theCongress and so on.At the same time, her closest advisors like Arjun Singh, who have nothing to gain from a Congress-led government because they are not MPs, have advised her to to wait and not do anything in haste. For the moment, this lobby seems to be prevailing, as is obvious from the statement made by Congress spokesman Salman Khursheed today. He said the party is ``waiting for a strategic doctrine to emerge'' before taking a decision.But Chandra Shekhar and his friends have made it clear that they are not prepared to wait while Sonia Gandhi fiddles. They are exploring all alternatives, including wheedling away a section of the Congress with the lure of power. Unfortunately for them, the way the current Lok Sabha is structured, the numbers simply do not add up for any group without the full support of one of the two major blocks - the Congress or the BJP. The Vajpayee Government's salvation thus lies in Sonia's reluctance and the confounding numbers game.UF backs new front; keen on Cong-ledGovt After the initial tentative reactions from within the United Front to the formation of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, UF leaders are now viewing it as a welcome move and say they are ready to back a Congress-led alternative government.At least two senior UF leaders, chairman H D Deve Gowda and former Union minister S R Bommai, today came out in support of the RLM saying the objective of the new front and the UF was the same; to fight communal forces. Similarly, there were stepped up appeals to the Congress to take the lead in forming an alternative government. Gowda even hinted that the UF would have no objection to any nominee of the Congress, including Sonia Gandhi, for prime ministership.
