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Sweet Somethings

The Congress and the SP might become post-poll bedfellows

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Sweet Somethings
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The Congress and the SP don't exactly seem to have broken the ice, but the freeze is showing some cracks on the eve of the crucial UP polls. When SP general secretary Amar Singh declared that "direct channels of communication are open—earlier, neither Congress president Sonia Gandhi had spoken to me, nor I to her", he was signalling a basic change of stance.

Speculation of a poll-eve entente was fuelled when Singh attended a seminar organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation last week, sharing the dais with Sonia Gandhi and later making downright flattering remarks about her. While Singh insists that this newfound fondness for Sonia has no political colour, he says "a dialogue should be kept going with everybody".

His U-turn is pronounced. He told Outlook: "She was nice to talk to. She honoured me by inviting me to the seminar and spoke very warmly. Our differences are in the past and were more political than personal."

The softening of the SP's stance towards Sonia is not only indicative of its apprehensions about the bjp, it also raises the possibility of a post-poll adjustment between the two. Chances of a pre-poll tie-up are, however, very dim, given that the SP cadre have been reared on anti-Congressism and an anti-Mulayam Singh Yadav faction is well-entrenched within the Congress.

The ill-will between the two intensified after the SP refused to support a Sonia Gandhi-led coalition at the Centre in 1999, attributing its reservations to her foreign origin. The subsequent poll campaign was characterised by a dirty poster war. Mulayam improved his numerical strength substantially, but so did the Congress. The lack of communication between the two leaders has been so absolute that neither has been to the other's iftaar. Nor did the SP show up at Sonia's tea party for Opposition members during Parliament's monsoon session.

Sources, both in the Congress and the SP, have, however, been saying of late that a post-poll tie-up is on the cards. Says a senior Congressman: "The formulation is simple. Chances are the SP will emerge as number one, with the bsp and the bjp interchangeably as two and three and the Congress at number four. No one will have a simple majority. To form a government, either two and three or one and four will have to get together."

He added that implicit in the understanding was that while the SP took Lucknow, it would leave Delhi to the Congress. A reasoning that doesn't appeal to the SP. An SP MP observed: "Amar Singhji's statement doesn't mean that we've changed our stand on Sonia as PM. If she wants to remain relevant, she'll have to give up that dream. If there is any Congress-led coalition, we must also have a say on who will be the prime minister."

That, however, being a distant concern now, leaders of both parties are more bothered about the UP elections. The SP has been nervous ever since Rajnath Singh took over as CM. He's adopted a "no quarter" attitude towards the SP, treating it as an enemy rather than as a rival.

The SP leader's statement is thus being seen as a warning to both the bjp and the Left Front. The idea is to tell the bjp that it's in for trouble if the Opposition comes together. Said Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer, who has had an acrimonious relationship with Amar Singh: "I welcome a reconciliation between the parties of the Opposition. The divisions have allowed the government to get away with everything."

For the Left, it's a clear message that Mulayam Yadav no longer needs intermediaries to talk to the Congress. Of late, differences between the SP and the ncp have also been resolved.

One reason for Amar Singh changing his mind about Sonia could be the fact that his friend Anil Ambani enjoys an excellent rapport with 10, Janpath. Ambani has called on her and is understood to have pledged support to the Congress. For those interested in the non-political dimension to the story, a reconciliation between Sonia and her former friend and Amar Singh's best buddy might well follow. His name: Amitabh Bachchan.

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