Hammer & fickle: Left keeps Sonia guessing

New Govt on Thursday; DMK may join later; Manmohan, Pranab to oversee common programme.

Sonia Gandhi and her council of ministers could be sworn in on Thursday with portfolio allocation being completed by Wednesday, Congress sources indicated.

Gandhi is to call on President APJ Abdul Kalam tomorrow to stake her claim as the leader of the single-largest party in the 14th Lok Sabha and also hand over the letters of support from the allies of the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA).

With both the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) still closeted in discussions about whether or not to join the government, the government is likely to comprise nine major alliance partners: Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, Shibu Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Chandrashekhar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Pawan Chamling's Sikkim Sangram Party and S Ramdoss' Pattali Makkal Katchi, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief, M Karunanidhi, met Congress President Sonia Gandhi yesterday and reiterated his position that the DMK will stay out of the government for now and that it might consider joining it "later".

He did, however, hand over a letter of support to Gandhi, becoming the first ally to do so. He was followed by Laloo Prasad Yadav and other allies.

The Left parties had extended meetings on the options before them yesterday. The consensus in the Left was that there was little in common between their programme and that of the Congress.

Leaders who spoke at the national executive meeting of the CPI and the central committee meeting of the CPM said ideological differences with the Congress in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala would make it untenable for them to join the government.

Although discussions are still on, all indications are that the Left parties will stay out of a Congress-led government.

The concern in Congress and Left circles is how will the government survive if the Left does not join it?

The Left is clear that because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), too, has a legacy of economic reform, consistency and commitment to reform will guarantee its support in Parliament.

The Left can then oppose reforms with a clear conscience despite shoring up the government, as they had done during the Narasimha Rao government.

To fine-tune the working of the alliance, Gandhi had a meeting with allies in the evening yesterday attended among others by Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Rashtiya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh.

The meeting discussed the outlines of the common minimum programme, which is being drafted by Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Salman Khurshid, and is being overseen by Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee.

Party sources said the exercise entailed getting together all the manifestos of the allies and rendering them into a single document. After the meeting of the allies, Manmohan Singh said a draft of the common minimum programme would be given to allies.

Briefing reporters in the evening, Singh said a co-ordination committee would be set up soon. "The chairman and the convener of the committee will be decided after the meeting of the CPM," he said.

Singh also said that Karunanidhi had proposed Gandhi as the Prime Minister which was seconded by Sharad Pawar, Laloo Prasad and other leaders. "We would like all the constituents to join the government. But these need to be discussed separately," he said.

While some parties like the Samajwadi Party are yet to submit a letter of support, Singh said at yesterday's meeting all parties agreed to extend support to the Congress.

The Left parties are likely to announce their decision on active or passive support to the Congress tomorrow. Meanwhile, lobbying for bureaucratic and ministerial berths has begun.

If, as it appears now, the CPI and CPM stay out of the government, Gandhi's prime ministership will be similar to PV Narasimha Rao's in 1991, in a minority but resting on a complicated web of outside supporters.