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Cong. weighing tie-up with Sukh Ram

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI JAN. 25. After the electoral debacle in Gujarat, the Congress is evolving a strategy to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in Himachal Pradesh. The party is weighing the pros and cons of an electoral understanding with the Himachal Vikas Party (HVP), headed by Sukh Ram.

For a party that spurned Mr. Sukh Ram's offer in the last Assembly election in 1998, a decision which cost it power in Himachal, the stakes are different this time.

The Congress leadership is determined to show that the Gujarat results were an aberration and that it can stop the BJP's winning streak. "The brand of politics we witnessed in Gujarat is bad for the nation and we want to put an end to it at the first available opportunity, which happens to be Himachal in this case," the AICC general secretary, Ambica Soni, said.

Senior party leaders believe that the impact of the Himachal election results would be felt in the rest of the country, especially in the States going to the polls this year. A BJP win would shift the momentum irrevocably towards the ruling party, and if the Congress succeeds in forming the next government, it would succeed in halting the BJP's winning streak.

A section of the party believes that without a tie-up, the election would be a close call, a risk the party could ill afford. It is trying to impress upon the central leadership the need for an alliance.The party appears to be close to dropping its mental block on aligning with somebody who has several corruption cases pending against him. "If there was nothing wrong in the BJP taking his help to form the Government and also in giving him Cabinet status, why should there be anything wrong if we tie up with him,'' argues a senior leader.

However there are differences in the party with Veerbhadra Singh vehemently opposed to any tie-up with his bete noire. "How can we make corruption an issue if we align with him."

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