The talk at the just-concluded AICC session on the issue of coalition appears to have not gone down well with the UPA partners and supporting parties.
NEW DELHI: The talk at the just-concluded AICC session on the issue of coalition appears to have not gone down well with the UPA partners and supporting parties.
While CPI(M) said the Congress was known for its "record of flip flops on the coalition issue, NCP General Secretary D P Tripathi in a tongue-in-cheek remark said "I welcome Congress President Sonia Gandhi's speech especially the part in which she spoke about coalition dharma".
CPI's D Raja wanted the Congress to realise that the party's talk that it would not leave its political space for ever "applied to others also" and suggested that other parties would also act likewise.
At the day-long AICC session on Saturday, Gandhi had set the tone by saying that coalition does not mean the party should lose its political space for ever and had declared that it should get back to the days of its glorious past.
The talk of revival of Congress and shedding coalition politics had come over a year ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and when the Congress-led UPA government has completed three-and-half years in office at the head of a coalition.
RJD's Vice President Ram Dev Bhandari, whose party is the second largest constituent of the UPA, downplayed the talk and resolution at the AICC which said coalition cannot be at the cost of revival of the Congress itself particularly in states where its base has been eroded.
Bhandari said sometimes party leaderships have to play to the gallery and, therefore, they talk in such a tone.
The Left parties as also RJD and NCP reminded the Congress that it should understand that the country was passing through a coalition era.
CPI M's Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Mohd Salim said the Congress needed to "reinvent itself" in this era of coalition.
Noting that the Congress has a record of flip flops on the issue of coalition since the Pachmarhi meeting in 1998, he regretted that "Indian politics has entered into an era of coalition but our leaders have not".
CPI's Raja said Congress should remember that if any party tried to go beyond the limited mandate of a coalition then "there will be a problem". He lamented that the day-long meeting did not focus much attention on the problems of the 'aam admi' (common man) about which the Congress says it cares for.
There was hardly any discussion on the spate of suicides by farmers. He also that said that there was no sharp ideological debate as in the past AICC sessions on issues like public sector.
NCP's Tripathi said the "NCP has nothing to lose but only gain" but did not elaborate. Congress and NCP are locked in a tussle for the number one slot in Maharashtra.
RJD's Bhandari said the foremost task was to keep the communal forces out and for this there was need for all secular forces to come together.
The Congress' new line on coalition has come four years after the Shimla brainstorming session of senior leaders of the party which called for coming together of secular forces.
The Shimla resolve had helped the Congress come to power at the Centre in the May, 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
In her speech, Gandhi had also said that the party in Uttar Pradesh needed to be built from the ground level and the party faced its most difficult challenges in states of Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Incidentally all these states are either ruled by Congress allies or have a dominance in the Lok Sabha.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}