New Delhi/Lucknow, May 19
It did not rain, it poured. Letters of support rained on UPA today from the constituents of the Third and the Fourth Front, both formations disintegrating before the formation of the new government. There was a mad scramble among parties to offer unconditional support to the UPA. Among them independents as well as political outfits- some arch rivals and some who were clearly with the Opposition.
The BSP national president Mayawati, till recently a leading light of the Third Front, announced in Lucknow her party’s unconditional support to the new government headed by Manmohan Singh. The BSP, with 21 MPs, was followed by arch-rival Samajwadi Party, which too rushed their letter of support to the UPA and SP general secretary Amar Singh went to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to deliver it personally to the President. The reasoning was the same in both cases, namely to keep communal forces at bay.
Mayawati claimed that when she called to congratulate Dr Manmohan Singh, he had called her his ‘younger sister’ and urged her to extend constructive support to the UPA. The UP Chief Minister,however, declared that she had no illusion of any quid pro quo. Political observers, however, believe that the ever-present threat of the CBI, which is probing her role in the Taj corridor and disproportionate assets cases, prompted her to try and be on the right side of the next UPA government.
Another constituent of the Third Front, the JD(S), which has three MPs, also extended support to the UPA. JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy , who met Congress Sonia Gandhi to offer support even before results were announced, said :“They (Congress) requested our party's support... We wanted to give support to secular forces. Actually they (Congress) requested us to co-ordinate with them....We are giving support”.
The SP had come to the rescue of the UPA government last year after Left parties withdrew support on the nuclear deal issue. But SP had turned down a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress before the Parliamentary election. It had formed a Fourth Front with Lalu Yadav and Ram Bilas Paswan to contest the election. Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD too, with 4 MPs, handed over its letter of support to the Preseident
The BJP-led NDA is also not left unaffected in this mad scramble to offer support to the UPA. The buzz in the capital was that even Rashtriya Lok Dal-led by Ajit Singh has decided to part ways with NDA and join hands with UPA.
Keeping in mind the track-record of some of the new “supporters”, the UPA claims to have a contingency plan in place. It includes opening up a dialogue with Naveen Patnaik of the BJD and Nitish Kumar of the
JD(U).
