Basu, Naidu UF candidates for the prime ministership
George Iype in New Delhi
In an effort to consolidate the United Front alliance, its partners
have begun searching for a suitable leader who can be projected
as its prime ministerial candidate during the coming election campaign.
Parleys between the Front constituents in the capital
have thrown up two likely candidates who may
lead the coalition during the poll: Communist Party of India-
Marxist leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and
Telugu Desam Party leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N
Chandrababu Naidu.
Several UF leaders also suggested the names of former prime minister
V P Singh, H D Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral to lead them
in the political fray. Singh's ill health will, however, keep him out
of the hustings. While a section of Janata Dal leaders are
against Deve Gowda's candidature, Gujral does not have the
requisite support from UF constituents like the Samajwadi Party and
the Tamil Maanila Congress.
UF sources said the move to project a prime ministerial candidate
is meant to keep the Front united during the general election. It
will also put an end to various leaders's post-election
claims for the prime minister's post.
Front leaders also hope that this strategy
will prevent Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, G K Moopanar's TMC and Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal from crossing over to a Congress-led
front.
While Mulayam Singh and Moopanar
are currently holding serious negotiations with the Congress to
form an electoral alliance, the RJD has decided to go
along with the Congress.
"We hope Front constituents like the RJD, SP and TMC
will not part ways if we project Basu or Naidu as the future prime
minister," a UF leader told Rediff On The NeT.
Basu and Naidu, he said, have emerged as likely contenders
for the prime minister's post as both of them have wide acceptability
within the Front.
"Both of them get along well with Mulayam Singh and Moopanar,"
the UF leader said, adding that "only they can convince
the SP and TMC chiefs that a consolidated UF alliance will be the
front-runner in the election."
Basu will not be able to take up the mantle until he secures clearance from the CPI-M leadership. When the Front government was being formed 19
months ago, the CPI-M was under considerable pressure from UF constituents to join the government and let Basu be prime minister.
But the CPI-M Politburo -- led by younger leaders like Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri -- rejected the idea, depriving Basu of the opportunity of becoming prime minister. The Communist Party
of India, however, joined the government and two of its senior
leaders, Indrajit Gupta and Chaturanan Mishra, became Cabinet ministers.
The West Bengal chief minister later regretted his party's decision
declaring in an interview that 'not joining the government
was a historic blunder.'
The UF partners have now demanded that the CPI-M should reconsider
its decision and participate in the government.
CPI-M general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet said his party
did not join the government in June 1996 "because of our sharp differences with other constituents on economic policies."
"Leadership is not our priority. We are more concerned about
fighting the election as a united front," Surjeet -- who was widely seen as the power behind the scenes during the UF regimes -- told Rediff On
The NeT on Saturday.
However, he said the CPI-M will consider the other UF partners's request
and take a decision next week. The CPI-M central committee, which
meets in Calcutta on December 21 and 22, will also discuss the issue
while finalising its election strategy.
Naidu, the UF convener, is widely credited with having held the Front together when the alliance was confronted by crisis during these past 19 months.
But the AP CM has often expressed a reluctance to move from Hyderabad to New Delhi.
''I don't want to become the prime minister,'' said Naidu. ''The state is very important for me and I will work for its all-round development. I never went to Delhi to become something in the central government.''
EARLIER FEATURES:
The Rediff Interview / N Chandrababu Naidu
'In politics there are moments when you have to rise to the occasion and you've got to cater to the need of the hour and the pleas of the people'
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