Congress open only to Kalyanless SP

NEW DELHI: The Congress seems determined to push its ���no truck with Kalyan Singh��� line as a condition for a political deal with SP. The Congress, apprehensive about the fallout of such an association, with the man punished for the demolition of the Babri Masjid, on the Muslim electorate in UP, is insisting that the SP rid itself of its ���communal acquisition.���

Reservations about a politically prohibitive alliance with the Samajwadi Party was expressed by senior leaders at the recent Congress working committee meeting. Leading the pack was Congress general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh. Mr Singh maintained that an alliance with the SP would have a high political price.

���We are better off now in Uttar Pradesh than we were in 2004. We should go it alone in the state,��� Mr Singh had informed the party leadership. The AICC general secretary powerful advocacy for a solo fight came in the backdrop of tough bargaining on political as well as extra-political issues by the Samajwadi Party.

Party leaders who supported Digvijay Singh at the CWC meeting maintained that association with a ���Kalyan tainted��� SP will slow down the process of consolidation of Muslim votes in the party���s favour. Earlier this week, Muslim leaders in the Congress had also met Ms Sonia Gandhi to reiterate this concern.

Such is the uneasiness that even the SP chief���s recent backtracking on the clean chit for Kalyan Singh failed to mollify the Congress. For the party, it is not enough that Mr Yadav describe his relations with Kalyan Singh as a friendship and not an alliance with the SP.

The Congress would find it difficult to accept even the candidature of Mr Kalyan Singh���s son Rajveer Singh on a SP ticket. The discomfiture would extend to other close associates of Mr Kalyan Singh as well. The SP, it is believed, has agreed to nominate leaders close to Mr Singh in five Lok Sabha seats.

It is the Kalyan Singh factor that will now make or break this alliance. The issue of friendly fights in several ���politically significant��� seats which was seen to be the thorn in the finalising of the alliance has ceased to be a central concern. Though sections of the party are still adamant on friendly fights in at least eight ���politically significant seats,��� there seems to be a growing understanding that there is no such thing as a friendly fight.

It would send mixed signals to the electorate if the Congress and SP were to be at loggerheads in some seats and be working in unison in others. The SP has been opposed to the idea of friendly fights even as Mr Digvijay Singh stressed the importance that certain seats have for both the parties hence the need for friendly fights.