By opting to continue the Presidents rule in the state, the United Front has dared the Congress to oppose the ratification. The feeling in the front is that the Congress criticism immediately after central rule was imposed was just a public posture, and it would not oppose the ratification when it is moved in the Houses. The Front, however, has decided against dissolution of the newly-constituted state Assembly. Going along fully with Mulayam Singh Yadavs line on Uttar Pradesh, the Front once again rejected Mayawatis candidature, and came out with a decision to step up efforts to group together secular parties to form a popular government.
The steering committees meeting was once again poorly attended as chief ministers of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal preferred to stay away for various reasons. Presided over by Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, those attending the meeting included Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, whose National Conference has recently joined the Front. CPI (M) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet said after the meeting there was no change in the political situation in Uttar Pradesh with no party in a position to form a government. Apart from the UP situation, the meeting discussed the situation in J&K and steps needed to tone up the Fronts functioning. Surjeet would not say that the Front was not taking the CWC resolutions seriously, but remarked that we have of course taken note of their decision not to withdraw support to our government. He said there was no discussion at all on the CWCs criticism of the governments working on the defence, foreign policy and economic fronts. Another topic that was studiously kept aside during the meeting was the Congress unity moves, and reports that Congress (T) leaders like N D Tiwari and Arjun Singh would follow Madhavrao Scindia into the Congress. Both Tiwari and Singh were present at the meeting. According to Surjeet, Tamil Maanila Congress leader G K Moopanar had been fully involving himself in the Fronts activities and there was no possibility of his or his party merging with the Congress.
Significantly, even though the Left parties have been openly criticial of the government on economic matters, their representatives did not raise the issue at the meeting. Surjeet said the reservations of the Left parties on economic issued, and the foreign nationals issue of Assam would be taken up at the next meeting of the steering committee on November 20.
The meeting decided to set up two governmental committees to address the issues of autonomy and rehabilitation of migrants from the Kashmir valley after taking into account the threat perception from across the border following the dismissal of the Benazir Bhutto government in Pakistan. In an effort to consolidate the gains accruing from the installation of the popular government in the state, the committee felt that both the autonomy package and the rehabilitation measures should be taken up under a time-bound programme