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Athavale offers to mediate between Congress, SP

Republican Party of India politician Ramdas Athavale, a member of the dissolved twelfth Lok Sabha, today offered to mediate between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party for the forthcoming general election to prevent a spilt in the secular votes in Maharashtra.

Athavale said his party, which had four members in the Lok Sabha, favours an all-India alliance with the Congress.

He said he would soon meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and discuss the matter with her.

The RPI central executive is meeting on May 11 to chalk out the party's electoral strategy. RPI delegates from 20 states will attend the meeting.

A formal decision on continuing the party's alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra will be taken at the executive meeting, he said. But this time the RPI will demand at least eight of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state and 40 of the 288 assembly seats, he added.

Athavale said the RPI favours simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Maharashtra assembly in the first week of October, after the monsoon has withdrawn from most parts of the country.

The party will submit a letter in this regard to the Election Commission, he added.

Athavale predicted that the Congress and its allies would emerge as the largest group in the 13th Lok Sabha with at least 210 seats. Neither the Congress nor the Bharatiya Janata Party will be in a position to form the government on its own, he said.

He welcomed senior Congress politician Sharad Pawar's desire to enter into electoral alliances with secular regional parties in Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Lambasting the BJP and its allies for blaming the Opposition for their defeat on the floor of the House, he said the Vajpayee-led coalition government had collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions.

If the BJP had convinced Jayalalitha not to take an extreme step, the government would have survived, he said.

He also charged the BJP with trying to win over the four RPI parliamentarians, including him, "but the RPI did not buckle under pressure. If it had, the government would have survived."

Athavale said his party was against dissolution of the 12th Lok Sabha. The ensuing election will be the third in four years. "It is a bad precedent in a democracy," he said.

He disclosed that his party had given a letter to the President, supporting the formation of a national government if no alternative government could be formed.

He said even if there was no direct alliance among the secular parties, some compromise could have been worked out.

He hoped the warring factions within the RPI, one led by him and the other by Prakash Ambedkar, would unite before the Lok Sabha election.

He said he would soon approach Ambedkar for the unity talks so that the seat adjustments with congress can be discussed.

Athavale said the Election Commission's decision on the party's 'rising sun' symbol is awaited and hoped it would be in favour of his faction. He claimed to have the support of party MPs Jogendra Kavade and R S Gavai and hoped Ambedkar would also join up with them.

UNI

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