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Wednesday, May 19, 2004

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Congress choice acceptable to us: allies

By Our Special correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 18. Having failed in their bid to persuade the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, to reverse her decision not to accept the Prime Minister's post, the allies declared that they would accept whoever the party chose as its leader. Two days ago, the allies gave letters of support for a government headed by Ms. Gandhi. They are expected to hand in fresh letters once the Congress makes its prime ministerial choice.

Most Left party leaders maintained that the leadership of the Congress was an internal affair of that party. They, along with other allies, would meet after the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting to consider the new choice, if any.

The residence of CPI(M) general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who actively worked to bring the secular parties together, was the centre of confabulations as news of Ms. Gandhi's decision reached the allies. The former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh, the DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, the Nationalist Congress Party president, Sharad Pawar, the Lok Janshakti Party chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, and the Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh reached his house.

There, senior Congress leaders informed the allies of Ms. Gandhi's decision. While Dr. Manmohan Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad called on Mr. Surjeet, Mr. Arjun Singh drove over to the RJD leader, Laloo Prasad Yadav's house to inform him of the decision. Fotedar and Natwar Singh, Congress leaders, called on Mr. Paswan to urge him to accept Ms. Gandhi's decision.

Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. Azad and Mr. Arjun Singh also met A.B. Bardhan, Communist Party of India general secretary, to convey Ms. Gandhi's decision not to take up the prime ministership.

Earlier in the day, emerging from Ms. Gandhi's residence, the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, said: "Her children say that they have lost their father and do not want to lose their mother. How can we intervene? We can't give any assurance. This is a violent country."

However, the All-India Forward Bloc leader, Debbrata Biswas, felt that the Congress was not behaving like a "responsible party" and felt there was "no reason" for Ms. Gandhi to refuse the post despite overwhelming support from the allies.

Both Mr. Paswan and Mr. Laloo Yadav made a last-ditch effort to persuade Ms. Gandhi to relent. Mr. Paswan even rang up her daughter, Priyanka Gandhi, urging her to prevail upon her mother to rescind her decision. Though Mr. Paswan appeared resigned to the inevitable he did little to hide his disappointment.

"This is huge blow to Indian democracy. She had the mandate but was forced not to accept it," he said.

Mr. Yadav drove over to Ms. Gandhi's residence to plead with her. He also urged her to convene a meeting of the alliance partners and the supporting parties to express their renewed backing of her. Reacting to the development, Mr. Amar Singh said he respected Ms. Gandhi's decision and his party would go with whatever the Congress decided.

The Nationalist Congress Party also echoed similar sentiments. "It is an internal matter of the Congress, let them choose their own leader," said its leader, Tariq Anwar.

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