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Sonia's plan goes to pieces

George Iype in New Delhi

Four days after they unitedly brought down the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, a divided Opposition led by the Congress began fighting over the shape of the alternative government at the Centre.

On Wednesday, an ebullient Congress president Sonia Gandhi met President K R Narayanan to propose that her party form a minority government supported by all the other opposition parties from outside.

Six hours later, the non-Congress opposition groups rejected Gandhi's proposal and recommended two options: a rickety coalition government led by the Congress, or a Third Front-led coalition government supported from outside by the Congress.

The non-Congress politicians also suggested that the Third Front government should be led by veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) politician and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. But Basu and the CPI-M promptly spiked the idea.

Armed with the new proposal, Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav and All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha met Gandhi on Wednesday night to tell her that the non-Congress groups are not ready to support a minority Congress government.

Sources said Gandhi said neither yes nor no to the suggestion, but indicated that the Congress could reconsider the idea of a minority government and think of cobbling together a coalition. But any decision on the shape of a new government can only be taken after the Congress Working Committee meets, she told Jayalalitha and Laloo Yadav.

The decision to put a spoke in the Congress plan was taken after key regional parties like the Samajwadi Party, the AIADMK, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All-India Forward Bloc opposed Gandhi's hasty and unilateral proposal to the President.

Gandhi went empty-handed to the President, yet promised that she would furnish a supporting list of 272 members of Parliament in two days to form a minority government.

She informed the President that the only alternative formation the Congress is interested in is a minority government with outside support from all "secular" parties.

Rashtrapati Bhawan officials said Gandhi told Narayanan that the BJP and its allies have no moral right to ask for reinstatement of the Vajpayee government after it was voted out of power.

She also informed the President that the Congress does not find the other two options -- a Congress-led coalition and a Third Front government supported by the Congress -- feasible.

But Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Jayalalitha were upset that the Congress made up its mind to form the government on its own without collecting a single letter of support and knowing fully well that the crucial number of 272 MPs still eludes it.

Soon, Yadav convened a meeting of all non-Congress opposition groups. It was attended, among others, by Jayalalitha, Basu, former prime ministers Chandra Shekhar, H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral, Laloo Yadav, CPI-M general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, CPI general secretary Ardhendu Bardhan and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy.

A heated two-hour discussion at Mulayam Singh's residence saw opposition to the Congress plan growing. Mulayam Singh, Chandra Shekhar and RSP and AIFB politicians also vehemently opposed the idea of "the foreigner" Gandhi becoming prime minister.

While most of the politicians agreed to a Third Front-led coalition supported by the Congress from outside, they said they are also agreeable to a coalition government led by the Congress and including allies like the Samajwadi Party, RJD and AIADMK.

With Gandhi's game plan suffering a huge setback, it is unlikely that the divided Opposition will succeed in furnishing before the President a viable alternative coalition in two days.

In that event, officials said, the President will consider two options. First, give a second chance to the Vajpayee government to prove its majority, if the BJP claims to have more than 270 MPs on its side. Second, ask Vajpayee to continue to as caretaker prime minister and dissolve the Lok Sabha by calling for fresh elections.

The BJP and its alliance partners met the President in the evening and presented a list of 270 MPs. They claimed that only the BJP-led alliance could provide a stable alliance.

The delegation led by Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani also informed Narayanan that Gandhi's claim of having the support of 272 members is misleading and accused the Congress of resorting to horse-trading.

K Yerran Naidu, leader of the Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party, and other MPs of the TDP separately met the President to state that the Congress is trying to break their party by offering huge sums of money and Cabinet berths.

But unmindful of the accusations, Congress politicians said that in the next two days, Gandhi would use her charm to convince unrelenting opposition parties like the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, RSP and Forward Bloc to help the Congress prop up some form of an alternative government.

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