Bad tidings for Congress from South and North

New Delhi/Chennai, Mar 23 (PTI) Ruling congress got
severe jolts Thursday when three of its northern allies came
together to fight elections against it in Indian northern
state Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and a UPA constituent in south
switched over to AIADMK side.

The bad tidings for Congress came on a day when actor-
turned politician Vijayakanth, whom Dravida Munnetra Kazhgham
(DMK) and Congress were wooing, also announced his plans to go
it alone in the elections.

After days of wrangling over seat-sharing and deciding
to go their own way against Congress, allies Lalu Prasad's
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok
Janshakti Party (LJP) Thursday formed a "secular alliance"
with Samajwadi Party headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav to contest
unitedly in 120 seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

In a development that does not not bode well for the
Congress, which is without an ally in the two states, the
three parties decided not not to put up candidates against
each other with LJP dropping its earlier plan of fielding
former Prime Minister V P Singh's son Ajeya Singh in Fatehpur
in Uttar Pradesh.

SP General Secretary Amar Singh told reporters that a
formal announcement would be made in Delhi by leaders of the
three parties on April 30.

Congress has already decided to go its own way in Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar putting up as many of its candidates as
possible. Though Lalu and Paswan announced their decision to
tie up with SP and fight against Congress, they maintained
that they were still in the UPA.

"Congress is not UPA," shot back Paswan who said
the ruling coalition at the Centre was an amalgamation of 18
parties.

However, the Congress put up a brave face when Union
Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters at the AICC briefing these
parties would come back to it after the elections as it was
the only secular alternative.

Another senior leader Digvijay Singh it was upto Lalu
Prasad and Paswan to consider whether they should continue in
the UPA government taking the cue from PMK nominees who are
being pulled out.

Obviously happy over Congress' discomfiture, BJP
leader Arun Jaitley said the party has been isolated in 134
seats of UP, Bihar and Jharkhand that would make the
difference between winning and losing.

The decision of the three regional parties in the
north come speculation that parties were jostling for a
prominent role in the post-election scenario, especially in
case the non-BJP, non-Congress grouping of Third Front forges
ahead in the race for power.

In the other setback for Congress and its ally DMK in
Tamil Nadu, the PMK, which has been promised seven Lok Sabha
seats, one more than it has now now, and a Rajya Sabha
nomination by the AIADMK, took the decision after members of
its General Council overwhelmingly voted for changing sides in
a "referendum".

In the last Lok Sabha polls, the formidable DMK-led
DPA front consisting of Congress, PMK, MDMK, CPI and CPI(M)
registered a sweeping victory claiming all the 40 seats
including one in Puducherry blanking out the AIADMK-BJP
combine. The DMK-led front got over 50 per cent votes against
the AIADMK-BJP combine's 35 per cent.

MDMK, CPI and CPI(M) have already broken with DMK
and tied up with AIADMK for the coming elections. PMK is the
latest entrant into the AIADMK front.

A couple of weeks ago, AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha had
sent overtures to Congress to dump the DMK and finding no no
response she later said she had invited Congress.

The PMK, whose vote base mainly spread among the
backward Vanniya community, has a strong presence in the
northern districts of Tamil Nadu.

PMK's nominees in the Union Cabinet Ministers Anbumani
Ramadoss (Health) and R Velu (MoS Railways) are slated
to resign from the UPA government at the Centre shortly.

Both Congress and DMK have sought to make light of the
PMK decision saying they knew it was coming. PMK had a
presence only in some pockets of the state and alliance
arithmetic always does not not work, the spokespersons of the
two parties said in their reaction. PTI Team
AM