Congress defends its move in Uttar Pradesh

The main opposition Congress party yesterday tried to deflect criticism levelled against it for indirectly helping the ruling coalition's candidate win Monday's poll for the lone Uttar Pradesh legislative council seat.

It had abstained from voting by saying it was not consulted by the combined opposition before fielding a candidate.

The party's decision to abstain from voting not only saved the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from certain embarrassment, by sailing through in a close contest but it also split opposition unity at the centre.

A furious Samajwadi Party has already announced that it will henceforth have nothing to do with the Congress party and will maintain equal distance form both the BJP and the Congress party in future, besides calling off talks with the Congress party for forge an alliance for next month's Gujarat state polls.

The party yesterday admitted that its stand in Uttar Pradesh was well calculated and aimed at strengthening the party at the state level.

While Congress party spokesperson Satyavrat Chaturvedi refused to explain further, party insiders insisted that the move was intended to expose the Samajwadi Party as a power hungry party and at the same time paint the BSP-BJP alliance as an unholy since the combine despite its victory has been reduced to a minority by polling only 194 votes, at least eight short of majority.

"It was the best option we had. Since our eyes are fixed on the 2004 general elections, siding with the Samajwadi Party may prove detrimental to our growth. Our best bet to is expose all the three major parties in Uttar Pradesh and present the Congress party as the best alternative," party sources explained.

As for the BSP-BJP coalition in the state, he said the party prefers the government to fall on its own rather than help the Samajwadi Party to pull it down, adding that continuation of the alliance government for the time being will benefit his party.

The Congress party strategy is to not directly get involved in UP's murky politics and come out in a big way during the 2004 general elections when it intends to play the Priyanka Gandhi card.

Priyanka, daughter of party president Sonia Gandhi and former premier Rajiv Gandhi, had helped the party turn the tide in its favour during the 1999 general elections in the state. While she did little campaigning in her mother's Amethi constituency and some nearby areas, she left an indelible impact on voters.

The party now feels that she has the potential to take the state's voters by storm if she gets into active politics and campaigns full time in UP which will give the party a youthful look and a clean image, something the Samajwadi Party or the BSP-BJP combine cannot claim.

Officially, the Congress party has demanded the immediate convening of the UP assembly saying it will vote against the confidence motion.

The party has let down the Samajwadi Party twice ever since the state elected a hung assembly in February this year.

Both in March and earlier this month, it showed its reluctance to support the Samajwadi Party's bid to form the government by saying it will consider supporting it only if support of its 25 lawmakers can prove decisive.

"We have proved that we would have defeated the ruling coalition's candidate if only the Congress party had supported us. We polled 183 votes and add the Congress lawmakers and it makes up for the majority.

"What else do they want?" a furious Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh said, declaring that his party will not beg at the Congress doors any more and that his party will not seek the Congress party's support in toppling the UP government.

An immediate impact of developments in UP will be felt in faraway Gujarat, getting ready for state poll next month.

The Samajwadi Party has called off talks with the Congress party there in retaliation and announced that it will field about 120 candidates on its own for the 183-member state assembly.

Although, the Samajwadi Party has no big presence in Gujarat, where contest is expected to be a direct one between the BJP and the Congress party, given its pro-Muslim image, the Samajwadi Party can only derail the Congress party's hopes of defeating an upbeat BJP.

The Congress party is more hopeful than confident that the Samajwadi factor will play no major role in the Gujarat outcome, although it admits that a swing of even one per cent vote either way may prove decisive in the ultimate reckoning.