Rediff On The NeT: Congress, left wary of Jaya


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April 9, 1999

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Congress, left wary of Jaya

George Iype in New Delhi

Leaders of the Congress, Left and Third Front who are planning the impending fall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government are wary though of dealing with the temperamental All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha, though prospective partner she might be.

Even as Jayalalitha is all set to pull the rug from under Prime Minister Vajpayee any day next week, what has begun worrying the leading Opposition players is how successful they will be in pleasing the AIADMK chief themselves.

Jayalalitha's confrontation with Vajpayee was a result of the increasing number of demands she placed before the Bharatiya Janata Party government. Congress and left politicians who are holding hectic negotiations to cobble together an alternative government foresee a similar predicament with Jayalalitha in any new coalition arrangement.

Therefore, Congress president Sonia Gandhi wants her party emissaries to meet Jayalalitha to discuss government formation only after the AIADMK pulls out of the Vajpayee coalition. After her much-publicised tete-a-tete with Jayalalitha at the tea party on March 29, Gandhi has not sent any Congress leaders to talk to the AIADMK chief in Madras. Nor have any left or Third Front leaders approached her asking for her support to prop an alternative coalition.

"Our strategy in distancing ourselves from Jayalalitha is to ensure that we are not compelled to carry the baggage of her unfulfilled demands," a senior Congress leader from South told Rediff On The NeT.

He said Jayalilitha, through her chief intermediary Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy, has already informed the Congress, the left and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha leaders that the AIADMK wants participation in any emerging new arrangement.

But AIADMK sources in Delhi said Jayalalitha is keen to enlist support from especially the Congress leadership to finalise "all loose ends". Jayalalitha also wants to ensure that the Congress and the Third Front will promise to implement some of her demands before she withdraws support to the BJP-led coalition government.

Those demands will most likely include the dismissal of the Tamil Nadu government, dropping of the Enforcement Directorate's charges against her in the JJTV case, taking of action against Tamil Maanila Congress leaders for their alleged involvement in the Indian Bank scam and transfer and posting of a number of key officials.

The AIADMK functionary said Jayalalitha would not commit herself irrevocably to any sort of coalition till she is convinced that her priorities and demands are recognised and met by the new government.

Jayalalitha supporters believe the reluctance that Sonia Gandhi and other opposition leaders have in doing business with the AIADMK general secretary will vanish during her visit to Delhi between April 12 and 20.

On her arrival in the capital on Monday, Jayalalitha is expected to meet left and RLM leaders, including Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav. Any meeting between the AIADMK chief and the Congress president will be arranged only after the left, the Third Front and Jayalalitha herself give shape to a concrete alternative coalition.

But if her negotiations with the Congress fail, Jayalalitha will have the uphill task re-initiating talks with the BJP leadership for any rapprochement to ensure the Vajpayee government's survival.

As efforts to dislodge Vajpayee pick up momentum from Monday, many believe problems to prop up a new-look coalition will also begin between Gandhi, Jayalalitha and other top leaders in the left and Third Front.

The BJP leadership, which has not succeeded in enlisting assurances of support from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Indian National Lok Dal, now hopes that serious differences in the opposition should see them win the numbers game.

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