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Sangma, Digvijay's views spark confusion on Congress stand

Senior Congress leader Purno A Sangma and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh made contradictory statements on the party's stand on tie-ups for the November assembly election.

While Sangma said the Congress is likely to fight the November assembly election in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan without any poll alliance, Singh said he was open to the question of an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party. Singh, however, denied he had held any talks with the BSP leaders in this regard.

The former Lok Sabha speaker made the statement in a television interview while clarifying the Congress stand against having poll alliances in elections, both to assemblies and Parliament.

The party, however, is not against post-poll alliances, he said.

Asked if the two stands on pre-poll and post-poll alliances reflected the confusion within the party, he said, ''There is no confusion because having a coalition is different from electoral adjustments.

Addressing the media in New Delhi today, Singh said any final decision in the matter could only be taken by the Congress high command.

Singh's remarks come a day after BSP Madhya Pradesh unit joint secretary Jainarayan Choukse stated in Bilaspur that BSP chief Kanshi Ram has already held preliminary talks on the alliance with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the chief minister.

Referring to the BJP-led coalition at the Centre, Sangma said, ''Today, the major problem confronting the country is instability... Instability due to lack of mandate for a single party. We feel that a political party should get a clear mandate to give solid and good governance.''

He, however, admitted that the Congress would not be able to provide single-party rule in the near future.

Ruling out the possibility of the Congress pulling down the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Sangma said the party would prefer to go in for coalition if the government fell.

Asked whether it showed that the party would not like to rush in for elections, he said, ''No, we don't, we don't, frankly we don't want to. We are not ready, of course.''

Sangma would not agree with the opinion of some parties, like the Left, that the delay by the Congress to bring down the government would help the BJP to entrench itself.

The BJP had already reached its saturation point and the Congress its lowest. ''Now the reverse will start. We go up, they will come down.''

UNI

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