Sukh Ram forms third front in Himachal

Former federal minister Sukh Ram has announced the formation of a third front to contest next month's assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh in a bid to put pressure on the Congress party to announce an early alliance with his Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC).

The Congress party is slated to launch formally its campaigning in the state on Friday. The Himalayan state bordering Jammu and Kashmir is scheduled to elect the 68-member state assembly on February 26.

Rebuffed by the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which decided against any pre-poll alliance although the two parties were partners in power, the HVC chief is hoping for a tie-up with the rival Congress party.

Realising that the HVC, as in the 1998 state polls, can spilt its voters, the central leadership of the Congress party gave broad indications that they would like to have a pre-poll alliance.

The party's apex decision making body, the Congress Working Committee, at a recent meeting announced that it may not be averse to have alliances in future.

However, faced with stiff resistance from its state unit, particularly the last chief minister Virbhadra Singh, the Congress leadership has been taking its own time to make any formal announcement.

More than logic, Virbhadra Singh is going by a precedent that voters in the state have been electing the BJP and the Congress party to power alternatively. Party sources here point out that Singh is of the opinion that since it is the Congress party's turn to come to power this time round, there is no justification in sharing power with any other party.

The Congress central leadership, however, is not willing to take any chance and would like to snatch the state from the rival BJP to get over the shock of Gujarat where the BJP managed to retain power.

Since Sukh Ram, until he fell out with the Congress leadership, was one of the most popular party leaders form the tiny state that elects four members to the Lok Sabha, the Congress leadership feels that he may be of value, someone capable of making deep inroads into its traditional vote bank.

Despite facing serious corruption charges, the HVC managed to win three seats in the outgoing assembly and in the process derailed the Virbhadra Singh led Congress government. He lost no time in joining hands with the BJP which had fallen just short of the majority mark.

Sukh Ram has now announced formation of an HVC-led five-party third front in the state, including the two Marxist parties, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, with the intention to contest all 68 seats.

While he announced his party's withdrawal from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the centre, two ministers belonging to his party are yet to resign from the Himachal government.

Withdrawal of support to the ruling NDA will have no impact on the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government since the HVC has only a member each in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Political circles here see Sukh Ram's announcement as a way to arm-twist the Congress party into agreeing to form a pre-poll alliance.

Party sources said that a final decision in this regard may soon be announced and if need be both Virbhadra Singh and the state unit president Vidya Stokes may be summoned to Delhi to sort out the matter well in time.

The BJP is equally worried since despite being a Hindu majority state, religion plays no role in Himachal politics, thereby negating any chances of the Gujarat.