Moopanar could be the next prime minister

George Iype in New Delhi

Tamil Maanila Congress president Govindaswamy Karupaiah Moopanar has emerged as the favourite to succeed H D Deve Gowda as India's next prime minister.

Congress and United Front leaders got together on Tuesday and narrowed the list of those who could lead the next UF coalition government. For now, the 67-year-old former Congressman from Tamil Nadu is in the lead.

Meanwhile, the Left parties are adamant that Deve Gowda should continue to lead the UF and that the group should now bow to the wishes of the Congress. But the Federal Front, consisting of leaders from the the Asom Gana Parishad, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Telugu Desam Party and the TMC are trying to rein in the Marxists, if only to ward off a mid-term election.

Among the crop of UF leaders who wish to step into Deve Gowda's shoes are Moopanar, I K Gujral, S R Bommai, Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav from the Janata Dal and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.

But Moopanar, known for his manipulative and persuasive skills in the classic Congress mould, has been in the reckoning ever since the UF began a hunt for a new PM.

Though he has never held public office in his long political career, the landlord from Tamil Nadu is acceptable to Congress chief Sitaram Kesri as well as to Sonia Gandhi, whom many Congress leaders consider an alternate power centre within the party.

Congress leaders believe a Moopanar-led UF government will be more stable than one led by the Janata Dal. Kesri has, in fact, asked party colleagues from the south, such as K Karunakaran and K Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, to negotiate with the UF partners on the need to prop up Moopanar.

Karunakaran told Rediff On The NeT that while the selection of the next prime minister is entirely left to the UF partners to decide, "the Congress is definitely ready to put forward its suggestions."

"The next leader must be acceptable to the Congress leadership so that no problems may arise as it happened with Deve Gowda," he said.

Karunakaran said he has met Moopanar often in the past month."The Congress will be happy if the UF elects him. But the Congress does not want to impose any demands and conditions on the UF partners to select their new leader," he added.

The main hurdle Moopanar faces is from the Left, which fears that he appears to be more a Congress leader than a UF chieftain.

Many believe if Moopanar becomes prime minister, the Congress stands to gain as he could block the ongoing cases of corruption and criminal behaviour against many Congress leaders and the income tax investigation into the party's source of funds.

Moopanar's biggest advantage is that a section of Janata Dal leaders, led by its president Laloo Prasad Yadav and working president Sharad Yadav, favour him even though both of them are in the race for the top post.

The Yadav-duo claim that the move to dump Deve Gowda picked up momentum after they led the charge against the prime minister at the Janata Dal political affairs committee meeting. Sharad Yadav seems to be more interested in the PM's post and has visited the Congress chief four times in the past three days.

Janata Dal MPs argue that the PM should come from their ranks as the party has the largest number of MPs -- 45 -- in the UF combine.

Gujral, who is credited to have put the country's foreign policy on the right track in the past 10 months, has Deve Gowda and former prime minister V P Singh's backing.

He has a secular image and is popular in the international community. But he is inexperienced in grassroots politics, and that could hobble him when trying to manage the United Front coalition.

Bommai was suggested by a few MPs from his home state of Karnataka. The HRD minister, who prefers a low profile, is credited to have been a successful Janata Dal president before Laloo Prasad Yadav. V P Singh's second choice is said to Bommai, because he is a loyal supporter of the Mandal Commission recommendations made by the V P Singh regime.

Paswan's supporters claim he could be the first dalit leader to become India's prime minister. Affable and accessible to all leaders including the Congress, Paswan is image-conscious and plays to the gallery at trying times.

Samajwadi Party chief and Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has put forth his candidature too. His credentials: the popularity that he enjoys among the minorities and backward classes. A grassroots-level politician skilled in manipulation, the SP president's supporters suggest that a secular leader like him is the need of the hour.