Pawar moderates anti-Sonia stand

NCP leaders admit stand-alone position unsustainable

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar is devising a strategy to administer the anti-Sonia Gandhi pill to the Congress by making a political offer of forging a grand anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance of the secular forces without projecting anyone as the prime ministerial candidate.

During a strategy session with his party colleagues here last night, Pawar agreed to revise his rigid stance on Gandhi but made it clear that the leadership issue should be left open for the post-poll scenario.

The Maratha leader was under considerable pressure from his colleagues to take a "pragmatic view" of the political scenario in the context of NCP's dismal performance in the Assembly elections, leaders who were present at the meeting said.

According to sources, the NCP's core group realised the futility of pursuing the anti-Sonia Gandhi stance in the event of formation of a broader secular coalition against the BJP as such a position would only help the BJP.

But the NCP leadership also insisted that the Congress must give up its position declared in the Shimla resolution where Sonia Gandhi had been unilaterally declared as the leader of the Congress-led coalition against the BJP.

"Such a position will turn the whole focus against Sonia Gandhi," said a senior NCP leader.

Though the NCP has not conveyed this message to the Congress, Pawar appeared to have responded positively to Sonia Gandhi's suggestion of forging a broader coalition against the BJP at the internal party meetings.

Significantly, all senior NCP leaders who discussed the strategy at Pawar's residence held the view that the NCP's political preference would be to align with the secular front.

In effect, the NCP's moderate stance will hinge on two conditionalities: first, in the event of the Congress securing a larger share of seats than its allies after the Lok Sabha polls, the NCP will not dictate terms to the Congress over the party's choice of the leader.

But in the event of the allies getting seats more than the Congress, the Congress would give up its claim for leading the front and the leader will be elected from the alliance.

This clearly marks a shift in Pawar's stance when he refused to accept Sonia Gandhi as the prime minister under any circumstances.

Pawar loyalists, however, maintain that the NCP will not dilute its ideological position to oppose Sonia Gandhi as India's prime minister.

What appears to have prompted Pawar to sugarcoat his anti-Sonia pill is the realisation within the NCP that the party would be gradually marginalised in the national politics if it failed to align either with the secular alliance or with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In the recent Assembly elections, the NCP fared badly in Chhattisgarh despite high hopes as the electorate polarised in favour of national parties, the Congress and the BJP, while the NCP only played the role of a spoil-sport in certain constituencies.

That all senior NCP leaders at the meeting admitted that the party could no longer sustain "stand-alone" position in future politics is being seen as a significant political development.

Sources in the party said if the NCP's revised position was accepted by the Congress and a broad-coalition against the BJP was formed, the next election campaign would be focused not against Sonia Gandhi but against the BJP.

"This will take the heat off the BJP's campaign against Gandhi's foreign origin," a senior leader said.