UF leaders stick to anti-Congress stance

NEW DELHI, January 25: The United Front today refused to commit itself to co-operating with the Congress in the formation of a non-BJP gover...

NEW DELHI, January 25: The United Front today refused to commit itself to co-operating with the Congress in the formation of a non-BJP government at the Centre after the elections.

Front leaders, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, AB Bardhan and Ram Vilas Paswan, maintained at a conference here that their coalition would be in a position to form a government on its own. “We won’t require their support,” they said. Asked whether the UF would take the support of the Congress or offer help to that party in the event of the coalition not getting a majority with the aim of preventing the BJP from coming to power, they failed to give a categorical answer.

The two leaders of the Left parties expressed their reservations about Prime Minister IK Gujral’s sharing a public platform with the Akali Dal in Jalandhar earlier this week. Speaking for himself, Surjeet said that he would never share the dais with the Akali Dal.

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“But you should ask what were Gujral’s compulsions,” he said, adding that the Akali Dal indeed had nochoice but to support the Prime Minister’s candidature given his contribution to Punjab.

Surjeet however recalled that the UF core committee had decided against having anything to do with the Akali Dal. Asked about Jyoti Basu’s statement that the UF should have projected a prime ministerial candidate before the elections, both Surjeet and Bardhan said that the candidate would be selected on the basis of a consensus after the elections.

Surjeet criticised the Congress manifesto, saying that the party was still harping on the theme that single party rule alone could deliver the goods. On the contrary, it was busy all the while in teaming up with the “discredited” Laloo Prasad Yadav and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

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