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Deve Gowda says he isn't trying for Vajpayee's chair

A special correspondent in Bangalore

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has denied media reports that he is making another attempt to occupy the highest political office in India with the help of the Congress.

Deve Gowda's name has suddenly emerged in political circles as a prime ministerial candidate of the third front, another brand name for the erstwhile United Front. This got a fillip of sorts after Congress president Sonia Gandhi made the famous statement at Davangere last week that sparked off reports that Deve Gowda's emissary, C M Ibrahim, met the troublesome All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Jayalalitha to seek support for a possible alternative government.

Sonia had said at Davangere: "The way things are going in Delhi, there is every danger of a collapse of government. We have to be prepared. We cannot allow petty differences to come in the way of national responsibility.''

Deve Gowda fully agrees with Sonia's view that the BJP led coalition may collapse, not because of its allies withdrawing support, but because of differences within the Sangh Parivar. But he denied that he had sent Ibrahim to Jayalalitha.

He also denied that he had been meeting Sonia, as media reports had suggested, during the last couple of months.

"I have met her just once, that too, two months back. It was a courtesy call. How many times do I have to make this clear?'' he said.

His irritation at the Congress was evident in a chat with reporters. Deve Gowda was indirectly critical of the way the party was waiting for a 'ripe time' to take the initiative to send the BJP-led coalition out of office.

"Allowing this type of government is more dangerous to the nation rather than thinking of when the time is ripe to get absolute majority. When the country is facing the worst situation, when people belonging to another religion are burnt alive, what more do you want?

"If the Congress does not want to act at this stage, I am sorry. It is the responsibility of an Opposition party. It is for them to decide whether the time is ripe to throw the government out," he said.

Deve Gowda is very clear that he wants the Congress to take the lead in forming the next government as it is the single biggest party. It is obvious that he does not want to repeat the mistake of 1996, when the 13-party coalition called the United Front was backed by the biggest party in the Lok Sabha, the Congress.

The former prime minister, who went out of office because the then Congress president, Sitaram Kesri, did not get along with him, wants the Congress to take the initiative. The Janata Dal, with its six members, will support it.

"If credibility has to be restored to the government, the Congress should take the initiative to form the government. That is my sincere opinion and my sincere appeal to the Congress to bail out this country,'' he said.

Deve Gowda went a step further to state that he had no objection to his bete noire and former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav joining the third front.

"If the Congress takes the initiative, we will extend total co-operation. Whether Laloo is going to join government or Mulayam is, or X is going to, will not come in the way,'' he said. His biggest fear, he says, is that these "rabidly communal dispensation will destabilise this country."

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