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NCP forges secular front

By K.V. Prasad

NEW DELHI NOV. 30. The Nationalist Congress Party has formed a `Secular Front' along with the Samajwadi Janata Party, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Republican Party of India (Athawale) for the December 12 Gujarat Assembly election.

The Front is contesting 113 seats with the NCP fielding 81, the JD (S) and RPI 12 each, and the SJP eight. Announcing this, the NCP general secretary, Tariq Anwar, said the party chief, Sharad Pawar, and two former Prime Ministers, Chandra Shekhar and Deve Gowda, would jointly address public meetings in support of the Front.

Mr. Anwar claimed that the Front was contesting on the plank of safeguarding secularism with the aim of defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The NCP had earlier appealed to the Congress to form a secular front, but the latter had not taken the initiative.

He said the NCP also appealed to the Samajwadi Party and the Lok Janshakti to join the campaign, even though the SP had decided to go it alone.

Asserting that the seats the NCP was contesting were in the BJP stronghold of south Gujarat and the Saurashtra region, Mr. Anwar said the charge that its presence would divide the secular vote was not unfounded.

Citing statistics of the previous Assembly elections, Mr. Anwar said the BJP had secured 45 per cent, the Congress 35 per cent and the balance had been shared by the other parties.

It was this vote plus from the BJP share that the Front would target. The people of Gujarat too were looking at an alternative to the BJP and the Congress.

Mr. Anwar said the Congress, which had always maintained that it was in the forefront of the fight against communal forces, should have carried all the secular parties with it.

Despite its differences with the Congress, the NCP had sought an understanding with that party during the Goa Assembly elections and the Mumbai Corporation elections, but the latter did not respond.

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