United Front convenor N Chandrababu Naidu yesterday said the Front would take the consensus route to naming a new leader, dismissing speculation and media reports over the past couple of days on the likely candidates for the hotseat.
Other UF sources said the Front had informally decided to institute a smaller group to evolve a consensus on the contentious issue.
The group will then submit its recommendation to the steering committee for its assent.
A formal decision on the constitution of this body is expected to be taken at the steering committee meeting today.
The meeting will also discuss how the Front should response to the Congress refusal to withdraw its letter to President Shanker Dayal Sharma staking its claim to form the government, until the Front elects a new leader.
The United Front steering committee meeting, which was slated for yesterday, had to be postponed in the wake of the death of former Orissa Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.
Naidu appeared unfazed by the growing list of candidates for the Fronts leadership. We are not interested in names, we are concerned about a consensus view, he retorted.
Asked whether the Federal Front has mooted Tamil Maanila Congress leader G K Moopanars name, Naidu said, This is not correct, we cannot go like this in the selection of a leader.
Naidu was expressing this view even as various news agencies reported from Chennai that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had announced his partys support for Moopanars candidature.
Taking some time off from hectic parlays with other UF leaders, Naidu dwelt in detail about the new projects taken up by his government in Andhra Pradesh. Discussing his plans to tide over the states financial crisis, he emphasised that he was not in the running for the post of the new UF leader.
In response to a question, Naidu said that although each regional party may have an area of influence in only one or two states, they are as national in their approach as any political party. We may have fought with the Centre on the issue of safeguarding states rights, but on national issues we are like any other party, he said.
Naidu asserted that coalition politics was now the order of the day, following the collapse of the Congress old platform of providing a stable administration at the Centre. He pointed out that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had initially scoffed at the UF and its Common Minimum Programme. But today, the BJP is itself part of a five-party Front.
When asked whether the UF would take into consideration the Congress sentiment that its new leader should not be anti-Congress, Naidu said, A Front leader would be selected by the Front and the Front only.
Responding to reports that the Congress may join a new UF government, Naidu asserted that it was absolutely out of the question.
Sharma wants Cong in govt
David Devadas NEW DELHI
President Shankar Dayal Sharma has indicated to some of his visitors in the last couple of days that he would like to see the Congress participate in the new government so that it may be more stable than the last one.
The President has sought assurances from Congress leaders that the party will not once again bring down the government, as it did Gowdas.
Some of Congress president Sitaram Kesri's managers are worried about this sort of pressure to participate in the government. It does not suit Kesri personally, since he could not become a minister under a United Front Prime Minister.
