With the United Front settling for a change of leader in order to regain the support of the Congress, several names have been floated as a possible replacement for caretaker Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.
In sharp contrast to last May, when no one was willing to take up the mantle of prime ministership to head the Front government, yesterday was a day when every conceivable name was floated as the next Prime Minister.
From Tamil Manila Congress leader GK Moopanar, his party colleague and finance minsiter P Chidambaram, UF convenor and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minster N Chandrababu Naidu, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad, external affairs Minister IK Gujral of Janata Dal, railway minsiter Ram Vilas Paswan (also of Janata Dal).
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When we have decided to make ourselves the target of collective ridicule, what is the harm in piecemeal ridicule, a Janata Dal leader said when asked which Dal candidate had a better chance. Gowda was a target of strong criticism from his own colleagues at the Dals parliamentary affairs committee meeting and the subsequent steering committee meet yesterday. Talking about the post-April 20 scenario, when the United Front parliamentary group is likely to elect a new leader, if all goes well, a Front source close to one of the leaders whose name is being taken as a front runner said that most ministers in the present government might continue with minor changes.
Senior leaders of the Front however refused to be drawn into the leadership issue, saying it was too premature and early to hazard a guess when the steering committee of the Front had formally not yet taken a decision to elect a new leader. The picture, they maintain, would be clearer only after April 17, when the Fronts steering committee meets.
Most chief ministers and senior leaders yesterday left for their respective states and would return only on Wednesday. Jyoti Basu, M Chandrababu Naidu and M Karunanidhi left for their respective states. CPI general secretary A B Bardhan and CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet were also away.
A day after the crucial decision of the Front to change its leader and form a new government if Congress extended formal support, the Front was agog with the talk of how the TMC, the DMK and the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav would have split the Front to join the Congress Party.
These three were strongly against going for elections as they said they were not prepared for polls. In case of these three joining the Congress, almost three fourths of the Janata Dal would have also joined the Congress, a United Front leader said, explaining the rationale of the Fronts decision to dump Gowda.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was only discharging his responsibility as the convenor of the Front when working to bind the regional parties in the Federal Front by bringing all to the lowest common denominator, that elections should be avoided, a Front source said. Though they may have come down in the public eye for having decided to dump the leader for the sake of avoiding elections, Front leaders say their victory lay in remaining united against all odds.
Not only did the Congress fail to break the Front after withdrawing support, it was even unable to break the Front after the governments defeat on the floor of the House. On the contrary, the Congress is now forced to scale down its plans and support the Front against a face saving measure, a change of leadership.
The BJP also, the Front leader said, has failed in not realising its dream of some of the regional parties falling into its lap in the event of Congress-UF relations souring.