United Front refuses to change leadership

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The United Front has closed ranks to stand firmly behind Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's leadership even as the President asked him to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on April 11.

''We will remain united under H D Deve Gowda," UF spokesman S Jaipal Reddy told reporters late on Monday after a four hour-long-meeting of the Front's steering committee. Deve Gowda, Reddy added, was confident of "facing the situation on the floor of the Lok Sabha."

Rejecting the Congress charges which prompted the party to withdraw support to the Front as ''untenable, unsustainable and unjustified,'' Reddy said it was not late even for the Congress to reconsider its stand.

When reporters asked him whether the Front would back the Congress endeavour to form a government, Reddy declared, ''our government is there and we will seek support from them.''

The fact that the UF has again appealed to the Congress to reconsider its decision has added another dimension to the uncertain political situation. Especially as both the Congress and the Front have repeatedly expressed confidence that they will successfully win any trial of strength in Parliament.

Some observers spoke of the possibility of some constituents of the Front coming over to the Congress and supporting Kesri's cause of forming the government in order to check the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Others hinted at the possibility of Deve Gowda engineering a split in the Congress by luring Sharad Pawar said his supporters to the UF side. There is a feeling that Narasimha Rao -- whose supporters have opposed Kesri at every step since he took over as Congress president -- will throw in his lot with Pawar.

There is visible relief in the United Front that the President has called on Deve Gowda to prove his strength in the Lok Sabha and also granted the prime minister eleven days to prepare for the vote of confidence.

A BJP delegation -- president Lal Kishinchand Advani and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- also met the President on Monday evening. While declining to divulge the details of the meeting with the President, a senior BJP leader said the party sought to verify the Congress claim for forming a government.

Even as hectic political activities continued throughout the day, the feeling gathered ground that a mid-term poll was not far away. But with most political parties, barring the BJP, uninclined to face a general election, it remains to be seen whether politicians can change sides for the ostensible purpose of safeguarding secularism.

The last word on this score from Jaipal Reddy. ''The Front is not for a snap poll," he said, "but if an election is forced, we cannot help it.''