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Congress will not support coalition, says Karunakaran

Senior Congress leader K Karunakaran today ruled out the possibility of his party supporting a coalition government after the mid-term polls, saying it would try to form a government on its own.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme, he said experience during the past 50 years had proved that only a Congress-led government could ensure stability.

Asked whether the Congress would get a majority of its own, Karunakaran said, ''The Congress would form the next government. If the situation arose, other secular parties can support it from outside.''

He said it was ironic that certain non-BJP parties were still maintaining their ''Congress hatred'' which had remained a stumbling block in the formation of an alternative government at the Centre after the fall of the Vajpayee government. If they continued with this attitude, it would only help the BJP to widen its base, he added.

Karunakaran said it was the CPI-M that had publicly urged the Congress-I to form an alternative government after the collapse of the Vajpayee government. Unfortunately, the stand taken by certain left parties and the Samajwadi Party had allowed A B Vajpayee to continue as caretaker prime minister, he regretted.

''The Congress-I never expected Yadav to take such a stand,'' he added.

Arguing that the Congress should not be blamed for the polls, he said the party had always maintained that it would not adopt any unethical means to oust the Vajpayee government. When the government brought a confidence motion, the Congress, as a responsible opposition, had to vote against it. Once the Vajpayee government fell due to its own contradictions, the Congress had tried its best to form a secular alternative, he pointed out.

He said the Congress leaders could not be blamed if they accused the CPI-M of conspiring with other parties to install Jyoti Basu as prime minister. The CPI-M) could have influenced the other left parties to support a Congress government, he said and recalled that the Marxists had never taken an open stand that Basu should be made prime minister.

Karunakaran said though the BJP would be the number one enemy of the Congress at the national level, his party would not have any understanding with the CPI-M in Kerala. His party would not reach any secret understanding with the BJP to defeat the CPI0M in the state, he added.

He also dismissed the reports that he was planning to change the Lok Sabha constituency from Thiruvananthapuram as the BJP had included him in the 'hit list' of candidates to be beaten at any cost in the coming elections. ''It is for the party to decide from where I should contest,'' he added.

Asked whether the Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala would be expanded, Karunakaran said whichever parties that were willing to cooperate with the programmes of the UDF would be included in the front.

UNI

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