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Congress forecasts polls next year

The worsening economic situation and the contradictions within the ruling coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party augured a mid-term election next year, one that the Congress was ready to face, All-India Congress Committee secretary Anil Shastri said today.

Addressing a press conference, he said his party did not want an election immediately, but if one was forced upon the people, the Congress was ready to face it.

At the same time, the Congress would attempt to form an alternative government with the support of left-of-the centre, secular and like-minded parties in the event of fall of the BJP-led government and the president invited it to form a government, he said.

He said the contradictions within the BJP-led coalition and within the BJP itself were widening as could be seen on the issues of the insurance bill and the patents bill and the worsening economic situation had weakened the Vajpayee government. All these suggested a mid-term poll, Shastri said.

Shastri said his party was sending feelers to some constituents of the BJP-led front but he declined to identify them, only saying that no formal talks had been held with those parties.

Shastri denied allegations by Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav that the Congress and the BJP had entered into a secret understanding, describing Yadav as a disillusioned man.

"Yadav s anti-Congressism" was singularly responsible for the rise of communal parties in Uttar Pradesh, he claimed.

If Yadav was sincere, as he claims, in fighting communalism, he should be ready for an understanding with the Congress, he said.

Shastri claimed that the minorities and the dalits, who had deserted the Congress in recent years, were returning to the party fold and strengthening it.

He reiterated his earlier call to the Trinamul Congress and the Tamil Maanila Congress to return to the Congress fold, particularly since they have been repeatedly asserting their Indira-Rajiv legacy. There was no reason why they should maintain their separate identity now that Sonia Gandhi had taken over the party, he said.

In Tamil Nadu, the party was prepared to go it alone or go in for strategic tie-up with some parties, he said.

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