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SP worried about Congress plans

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

They were only too eager to topple the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government -- but that done, the Opposition parties appear distinctively apprehensive about the content of the alternative rule.

The indications come from the Samajwadi Party, a Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha constituent. SP general secretary Amar Singh told reporters that he hoped the Congress would accommodate all secular parties in the government.

"As a major party, the Congress has the responsibility of carrying along all those secular parties which voted to bring down the government," Singh said.

A senior Congress leader, however, indicated that his high command still desired to lead the alternative government with outside support from other secular parties.

The SP did not fail to take a major share of credit in the government's felling. "Unlike some other parties," Singh said, "our party MPs steadfastly stuck together." He pointed out that if the Opposition had been united 13 months ago, the Vajpayee government would not have assumed power.

The country, he continued, had "to go through economic instability, communal unrest and political turmoil because the Opposition could not be untied to combat the communal Vajpayee government."

Singh maintained that RLM leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav had constantly asked the Opposition to be united.

The SP leader reiterated his chief Mulayam Singh's contention that it was the secular parties who should decide whether the SP or the BJP was to be targeted. The statement reveals that the party is apprehensive about the Congress in the unfolding political drama. The SP chief has frequently lashed out against the Congress in Uttar Pradesh for taking on his party instead of the BJP.

Asked whether he was criticising the Congress, Singh was quick to say 'no'. He added that senior Congress leader Sharad Pawar had met Mulayam Singh soon after the government fell.

Questioned how the alternative government planned to carry along such hostile parties as the SP, Bahujan Samaj Party, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Tamil Maanila Congress , Singh said, "If Mr Vajpayee can cobble together a coalition government with such disparate entities, everything is possible."

His statement that the SP has not obliged anyone by helping to bring down the government also indicated that the party leadership did not want to minimise its role in the formation of a new government. Answering a query, he said the SP could not commit anything to the Congress.

He said it was significant that though the Congress had earlier pulled down various governments, it has suddenly become 'stability conscious'. This was why he hoped other parties would be carried along in its government.

Singh did not fail to underscore that the RLM's next target was the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh.

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