The Congress yesterday joined hands with the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha on the issue of the Maharashtra government's rejecting the Srikrishna Commi-ssion report on Mumbai riots.
Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav had convened a meeting of all secular parties on behalf of the front for a joint effort on the Srikrishna report. One of the main items on the hidden agenda was to enlist support to topple the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. However, apart from known allies, none of the opposition parties responded to the invitation to attend the meeting. Those present at the meeting included Laloo Prasad Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Subramaniam Swamy (Janata Party), Buta Singh (Independent MP), and P J Kurian (Congress).
CPM general secretary H S Surjeet did not attend the meeting, but was reported to have met Mulayam Singh Yadav last noon and promised to write to Vajpayee. Former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar also did not attend the meeting. It was decided in the meeting to call on President K R Narayanan to pressurise the Centre to dismiss the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra.
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They will also seek a meeting of the National Integration Council to debate on the Srikrishna Commission report, and the Maharashtra government's response to it.
The meeting set a five-member panel to interact with secular parties in the effort to seek the ouster of the BJP-Shiv Sena government. Laloo Prasad Yadav said the main aim of the front was the downfall of the Vajpayee government, "but we will begin with the Manohar Joshi government".
The panel includes Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kurian, Ranjan Prasad Yadav, Buta Singh and Swamy. Samajwadi Party sources, however, admitted that there was not much significance to Congress leader Kurian's presence, since the Congress had a separate programme on the Srikrishna report. The party yesterday held a dharna in the Parliament house complex. near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.
A senior RJD leader said Kurian's presence in the meeting could not be construed as the Congress accepting the candidature of Mulayam Singh Yadav for the post of Prime Minister in the event of the Vajpayee government collapsing.