Others in rush to sign up with Congress

MANDATE 2004

Having comfortably crossed the half-way mark, the Congress will explore the prospects of moving closer to the two-third majority scenario.

This will call for support from both the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which have already indicated their willingness to join a Congress-led coalition at the Centre.

The Congress and its allies, together with the Left parties, have notched up 283 seats in the Fourteenth Lok Sabha. Besides SP and BSP, the Congress will need to involve other non-NDA constituents too to get closer to the 358 seat mark in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

SP General Secretary Amar Singh yesterday said his party and the left should be considered as one entity. BSP leader Mayawati too said her party was keen on joining the Congress-led formation at the Centre.

"Our main agenda is to strengthen the secular forces at the Centre and keep communal forces away from power. For this, we are ready to extend support to a Congress-led front," she said. She, however, made it clear that if the Congress backed the Samajwadi Party, it would not support such an alliance.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) said it will join the government headed by the Congress at the Centre. "We will give inside support to the Congress as we had entered into a pre-poll alliance with it. For the sake of the stability of the government at the Centre, it is necessary for us to participate in it," JMM general secretary Mukti Nath Upadhaya said.

Noting that the Congress would have a leading role to play in an alternative government to NDA, CPM general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet yesterday said the "secular, democratic forces" would not be rigid over the issue of prime ministership.

The Congress has emerged as the single largest party and together with its allies DMK, MDMK, PMK, TRS and RJD, has notched up a total of 219 seats. The Left also posted its best ever performance of 64 seats.