Congress May Call For Mid Term Poll

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http://www.newsinsight.net/nati2.asp?recno=3220
The UP chief minister and Samajwadi Party supremo, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has advised his core group of MPs to concentrate again on their constituencies in preparation for Lok Sabha elections in October.

Sources could not point to any provocation for this extraordinary counsel, since the UPA government in the Centre has survived the upheavals, constitutional deadlocks, and confrontations with the judiciary in Goa, Jharkhand and Bihar, but the extraordinary political cunning of Mulayam is forcing political rivals to do a double take on this development.

Mulayam is close to the Left leadership, especially CPI-M general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, who is unhappy with the Congress leadership over the developments in Bihar, where it allied with Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP to defeat Laloo Prasad Yadav.

Mulayam has also build new links with Paswan, in the hope of cutting into Mayawati’s Dalit votebank in UP, and sources said Samajwadi Party poll preparations could have links to the Paswan and Surjeet connections.

In Bihar, despite Laloo’s show of warmth for Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her party could be undercutting the RJD, by planning a long spell of President’s rule to showcase the advantages of being governed by a national party like the Congress.

In the event of prolonged direct rule in Bihar, one of the internal Congress party recommendations, Laloo-Congress relations would be directly hit, leading him to carry out his threat of quitting the UPA, and this would conceivably force general elections, if the Left pulls out with the RJD.

“Anything is possible,” said a political stalwart, “the situation is very fluid, and it is very likely that Mulayam has scented a change early.”