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Antony rules out support to third front

D Jose in Trivandrum

Congress Working Committee member A K Antony has ruled out the possibility of supporting any other party or formation to form a government at the Centre if the next general election again results in a hung Parliament.

Antony hoped the Congress would get a majority in the Lok Sabha. If that did not happen, the party would try to form the government with the support of "like-minded" parties. But there was no question of supporting a third front government, he said.

Antony said the Congress had had bitter experiences by supporting the governments headed by H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral, and would not like to repeat them.

The Congress, he said, had "given an opportunity" to non-Congress parties to rule the country four times, but none had succeeded in providing a stable government.

He accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of betraying the people by persuading the Congress to form a minority government and then backing out after the downfall of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition.

He said the Congress had doubts about the role played by the CPI-M in Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav taking a firm stand against a Congress government. The CPI-M owes an explanation to the people for the change of its stand, he said.

Antony said the third front was not anti-BJP but anti-Congress, and such blind antagonism to his party was not good for the country.

Antony, who is also the leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, came down heavily on the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front government in the state. The party heading the government is not Marxist but fascist, he said. He said fascism was rearing its head in the state under the LDF and expressed concern at the growing political violence. He also accused the CPI-M of being indifferent to the menace.

Meanwhile, former Kerala chief minister K Karunakaran said the Congress would forge an alliance with the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu.

Addressing a meeting of party office-bearers in Cochin, he predicted that the Congress would win the election because the political situation in the country is favourable to it.

He said the Congress was not responsible for the ouster of the Vajpayee government, but the allies of the BJP. The Congress voted against the confidence motion as it felt the continuation of the government was detrimental to the nation's interests.

He said AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha had not held any talks with the Congress before withdrawing support to the government. She discussed the possibility of forming an alternate government with Sonia Gandhi only after the confidence motion was defeated.

Karunakaran said the Congress would have formed an alternative government if the CPI-M, the Samajwadi Party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc had not played villains in the political drama in Delhi.

The veteran Congressman said the three-year-old E K Nayanar government in Kerala is in a pitiable condition and its chances of surviving a no-confidence motion are bleak.

He said the Congress-led United Democratic Front, which won 11 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 1998, would improve its tally. Keralites are convinced that only the Congress can provide a stable government, he said.

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