Congress party riled as ally NCP warms up to rival Third Front

New Delhi: The ruling Congress party is miffed with its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for hobnobbing with the Marxist-led Third Front.

Federal minister Sharad Pawar, who heads the NCP, is scheduled to address a joint rally in Orissa along with some Third Front leaders, including the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) general secretary Prakash Karat and the state chief minister Naveen Patnaik today.

His decision has virtually led to a war of words between the two allies with the Congress threatening to take on all those who fight against it and the NCP blaming the Congress for collapse of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that has been ruling the country for the past five years.

What is worrying the Congress party even more than the ongoing Parliamentary elections is the October state assembly polls in Maharashtra where the two parties share power as equal partners.

"It is for the NCP to introspect as to what kind of message it will be sending by sharing the dais with the Third Front," Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said yesterday.

An unfazed Pawar, however, said that there was nothing wrong with it since his party has entered into seat adjustment with Orissa's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJP) which has joined the Let-led Third Front.

Pawar was quoted by a private news channel as saying that even the Congress party had state-level tie-ups with various regional parties and his party was thus free to choose its partners in states outside Maharashtra.

Congress and NCP had recently broken the impasse by agreeing to contest 26 and 22 Lok Sabha seats respectively from Maharashtra. Apprehensions, however, are that the NCP is keeping all its options open as it goes to Lok Sabha polls, eyeing to increase its tally and spread its wings beyond Maharashtra. The Congress party is accused by various constituents of the UPA of displaying big brotherly attitude. The party on its own decided not to have national-level alliance with any party.

So far, three constituents of the UPA have virtually walked out of it as the Congress party decided to go it alone in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which together account for 120 Lok Sabha seats.

This has forced the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Janshakti Party to come together and create a block within the UPA. While they would be contesting against the Congress in these two states, they are eyeing greater say in the next government by negotiating as a single block.

Political analysts say that although the NCP was amongst the first parties to announce its support to the Congress after it emerged as the single largest party in 2004, it is far from comfortable with the Congress party.

Senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri is on record saying NCP joining them in the Third Front is bound to happen after parliamentary elections.

NCP's game plan appears to be joining hands with any group that may come closer to form the next government at the centre. While it continues to be with the UPA and is hobnobbing with the Third Front, it has kept the channel open to even join the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).