Congress takes Left turn to power

Vajpayee resigns; 8 cabinet ministers bite the dust; LEFT notches its highest tally

Sonia begins talks on forming government; CPM to decide on joining government by Monday.

The Congress is set to come back to power at the Centre after a gap of nine years as the people delivered a devastating mandate against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2004 general elections for which counting concluded yesterday.

Sonia Gandhi appears set to become the Prime Minister though she herself said nothing about her plans. At a brief press conference, she said the Congress Legislature Party would meet on Friday and elect its leader.

When asked if the leader of the party would also be the prime minister, she said: "Well, that is normal". However, all the top leaders of the party asserted that Sonia would be their candidate for prime minister.

In a halcyon election, as many as 8 Cabinet ministers were swept out in the Congress-Left whirlwind that rendered hopeful Third Front aspirants like the Samajwadi Party irrelevant to the Congress goal of reaching 272.

The Congress also emerged as the single largest party getting 145 seats, more than 138 for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

A stunning performance by the Congress and its allies "" the Nationalist Congress Party, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the DMK, PMK and MDMK "" had added up to 219 seats in the Lok Sabha for the Congress alliance.

The Left parties bagged another 64 Lok Sabha seats, the highest tally in their history.

Recognising defeat, the Cabinet met late this evening after which Vajpayee drove to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to tender his resignation to President APJ Abdul Kalam. The last Cabinet meeting was an emotional one at which the NDA resolved to continue to oppose "foreigner" Sonia Gandhi's government.

It was clear by late morning that it was a debacle for the NDA in the real sense of the word. When Vajpayee sent word to his ministers and advisers for a review meeting, the agenda was to "discuss the resignation of the government". It was clear then that the NDA had given up hope.

By contrast, jubilation in the Congress office started early in the morning and drums beat frenziedly as it became clear that the party was going to form the government.

Sonia Gandhi had a prolonged meeting of the core committee of the Congress to discuss what it would do if the Left refused to join the government and how to view the issue of acceptance of support from Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Left parties had their own meetings and announced that a formal decision on whether they would join the government would be taken after May 17.

As before, there were two tendencies in the Left parties: party general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet favouring joining the Congress-led government and Prakash Karat opposing it.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is going to continue consultations, especially with delegates from Kerala and West Bengal, the two states in which the Left Front's primary opponent is the Congress.

Recognising the cleft stick which victory had put the Congress and the Left parties in, the Samajwadi Party tried to leverage the dilemma.

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda (JD-S), who could help the Congress in forming a government in Karnataka, also tried to negotiate a package deal that would involve give and take with the Congress in Karnataka and Delhi.

Much of government formation will depend on the outcome of these negotiations. All parties are having their parliamentary board meetings over the next two days.