Sonia clinches poll deal with Laloo

However, it is not clear whether the understanding will work for Bihar’s Assembly elections due in April, 2000 A.D. A lot still needs to be done and this, Congress leaders said, will be worked out once the date of elections is announced by the Election Commission. The EC also has to decide whether Bihar’s Assembly polls would be advanced to coincide with the general elections, in which case the Congress-RJD alliance will probably hold for both scenarios.

Laloo hinted at the deal with Sonia when he said today that the RJD would agree to any such proposal from the Congress. He didn’t add, though, that things had already been worked out to a fair extent. Apparently, it was after the Sonia-Laloo understanding that the Bihar strongman got on the phone and, soon enough, transfers of top state officials were announced at night.

The Congress is in desperate need of a revival in Bihar and though the party’s Pachmarhi Declaration put coalitions on the last priority, many CWC members are understood to have felt that for the coming midterm poll, “secular forces” would stand to gain a lot by allying with each other in states like Bihar.

Laloo had stood by Sonia in her efforts to form a minority Congress government at the Centre, which itself was a favour being returned for Sonia’s support to the reinstatement of the Rabri Devi government. Congress circles are relieved that 10, Janpath, acted swiftly on the Bihar front thus alleviating the problem in a major state.

But this was balanced by the bitter split with Mulayam Singh Yadav. CWC member Arjun Singh, in Delhi, and former Maharashtra Chief Minister A.R. Antulay, in Mumbai, both blasted Mulayam and said the Congress would not repeat its alliance with the Samajwadi Party this time.

Fourteen months ago, Sharad Pawar had worked out a deal with Mulayam for Maharashtra, in the 1998 general elections, which resulted in 34 Lok Sabha seats for the Congress, the largest chunk for the party from any state in the 12th Lok Sabha. The Congress’ ally, the Republican Party of India (RPI), also managed four seats in the process, the most it ever got.

This time though, the Congress and the SP are going separate ways in a bloody fight. Mulayam and Arjun Singh are currently involved in a war of words and the SP chief hit back with uncomfortable questions on Singh’s role in 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished.

The anti-Arjun camp in the Congress, which is fairly large, is hoping that he would stop attacking Mulayam everyday, having made the point. “Mulayam is in possession of video tapes of the shilanyas at Ayodhya and later events. It is best not to make him go to town with these which will revive the entire issue including Rajiv Gandhi’s role in the opening up of the disputed structure,” a top Congress leader said today.

That apart, inner-party squabbles still continue to demand Sonia’s attention. Last night a CWC member and a former minister, two of the four leaders being accused of messing up things for the party at the Centre, are reported to have met Sonia for almost an hour and complained against Pawar.

The duo is said to have alleged that Pawar was working in tandem with Mulayam and Left leaders “against” the party’s interests. A group of Congress Lok Sabha MPs is also stressing that Rajya Sabha leaders like Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee and people like Arjun Singh and M.L. Fotedar contest the coming poll to test their “ground popularity”.

It seems that, like in the past, the Congress’ own hassles could upset its chances. Meanwhile, Sonia today sent out a four-line note of thanks to all party leaders who had given her letters of support to form a government at the Centre. AICC functionary Maj (retd) Ved Prakash carried Sonia’s note to J. Jayalalitha but an expected meeting between Sonia and Jaya apparently didn’t take place today.