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Differences surface among Congressmen on alliances

Tara Shankar Sahay in Panchmarhi

Sharp differences emerged among participants of the political group on alliances and coalition politics at the Congress party's Panchmarhi camp on Saturday.

Senior Congress leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Rediff On The NeT that protagonists and antagonists of coalition politics forcefully presented their respective points of view at the brainstorming session.

Those who spoke in favour of coalition politics included senior leaders like Arjun Singh, Sharad Pawar, P Shiv Shankar and Chandrajit Yadav.

Shiv Shanker, a former Union law minister, is understood to have delivered a hard-hitting speech in support of coalition politics, underlining that in the present scenario, political parties could not survive for long without entering into alliances with parties with a strong social base and enjoying the support of the minorities. Parties championing the cause of social justice, he added, have been attracting many voters in recent years. Thus, for the Congress to prosper, he concluded, coalition politics was indispensable.

Arjun Singh too favoured the Congress going the coalition way since "alliances with other parties was the need of the hour." He contended that alliances could take the Congress to new heights. Significantly, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister is keen that the Congress enter into an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party for November's assembly election in the state.

But there were antagonists of coalition politics as well, most notably Narain Dutt Tiwari, Jitendra Prasada, Janaki Ballabh Patnaik and H K L Bhagat.

Congress sources pointed out that both Tiwari and Prasada stressed that as party leaders from Uttar Pradesh, they had observed how the Congress had not gained from alliances but in fact had almost been wiped out from the state because of these electoral links. Both men made a strong plea for the party to desist from coalition politics.

Meanwhile, former Congress presidents P V Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri were severely criticised by Sonia loyalists. While Makhan Lal Fotedar is understood to have lashed out against Rao for allegedly talking the Congress to the brink of collapse, Mani Shankar Aiyar vented his wrath against Kesri's leadership, terming it as "weak" and "misguided."

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