Amidst speculation about mid-term polls, the Congress appears to be examining the possibility of expanding the UPA experiment by taking even arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and BSP on board.
NEW DELHI: Amidst speculation about mid-term polls, the Congress appears to be examining the possibility of expanding the UPA experiment by taking even arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and BSP on board.
Uttar Pradesh PCC president Salman Khurshid insists that the approach to face future challenges is to take forward the spirit that brought the party to the centrestage via the coalition route.
Making a strong pitch for pre-poll alliances, Khurshid said that in the matter of tie-ups, the approach should be one of "planned parenthood instead of chance parenthood".
Suggesting that the doors of the alliance were open to parties of all hues barring the saffron brigade, he said in such an arrangement only the BJP will be in the "negative list".
In an interview to PTI, Khurshid sought to extend the olive branch to the Samajwadi Party, saying the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party "became allergic to us and we were never allergic to them".
Seeking to go the extra mile to woo the Mayawati-led BSP, he said that party can be a "very valued passenger" in the "big train that is going to travel fast with a powerful engine".
"They have to decide whether they want to board the train," he said, referring to Uttar Pradesh's ruling party, whose victory in polls in the key state is being regarded as a defining moment in Indian politics.
Khurshid's refrain is that there could be differences with these parties on specific issues, but not on basic ideology. There has been no fixed formula for an alliance but this could be evolved through a dialogue, he said.
Downplaying the demands made by the BSP government for a financial package for Uttar Pradesh from the Centre, Khurshid sought to assure Chief Minister Mayawati by saying, "Don't ask whether fans will work and the compartment is cool.
Just hop (on the train) and see."
He said the strategy of alliances is needed as the polity now is "like the Himalayas, which is a young mountain range witnessing a lot of landslips".
Khurshid, a former AICC general secretary and Union minister who was once the favourite whipping boy of the Samajwadi Party, said, "They (SP) let down the Congress when the BJP-led government collapsed..."
He also recalled how the Congress had protested on the Indira Pratisthan issue when the BSP was in power earlier in Uttar Pradesh.
Khurshid is the first senior Congress leader who has publicly favoured pre-poll alliances in the changed scenario, as against the chant for "post-poll alliances" by several party leaders, including some AICC general secretaries, till just six months ago.
Their argument before assembly polls in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh was that post-poll tie-ups would give better elbow room to the Congress for having a larger share of the political cake by going it alone.
Khurshid's comments have come at a time when the BJP is setting its own house in order and is going the extra mile for sewing up alliances. After smoking the peace pipe with Shiv Sena, the BJP has extended an olive branch to the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK.
His statements have also come at a time when there is confusion in the Congress on its strategy in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha.
"We must have alliances because practically and pragmatically they are the need of the hour," he said, hailing the UPA as an "alliance of creation" and dismissing the NDA as an "alliance of desperation".
At the same time, he cautioned: "Alliances are a means to an end. If you think of alliances as an end in themselves then that becomes an end."
His implication is that the alliance route to power should not be seen as the ultimate goal but as a reality in the current transient era of coalitions.
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