The top leadership of the Congress party has decided not to attack its estranged allies like Lalu Prasad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) or Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. Instead, the party hopes to get back their support in the post-poll situation to form the next government. Also, it has decided not to divert its energy on regional forces.
The top leadership has also acknowledged the gesture of Lalu Prasad — the RJD boss has already stated publicly that his party will not attack the Congress in the campaign. He has also expressed his deep respect for Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In fact, while some others like the Lok Janashakti Party’s (LJP’s) Ramvilas Paswan or Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) boss Sharad Pawar had initially expressed their interest for the PM’s post, Prasad has hailed Manmohan Singh as his “PM candidate” after Gandhi mooted his name, breaking the Congress’ tradition of not projecting anyone as the PM before the polls.
In this way, the Congress will maintain a difference between these allies and another estranged group of friends — the Left bloc led by the CPI(M). While the party will go soft on Prasad, it will not spare its salvos against the Left in states like West Bengal and Kerala. In West Bengal, it has already roped in Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in a clear signal that the Congress is eager to strengthen the anti-Left platform.
The prime minister too, in an uncharacteristic attack, slammed the Left as a “regressive force” but didn’t target Prasad or Paswan even as the two parties denied the Congress a large share of tickets in Bihar.
Although Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav have teamed up as a “front within the front”, the Congress believes if it returns to a position to lead the next government, these parties will again back Manmohan Singh.
The Congress leadership also pointed out that it wants its own organisation to grow in these states and so there was no other choice but to contest in more number of seats in the key states. “The Congress president, prime minister and other senior leaders took this decision after much analysis,” said a general secretary of the party.
