By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : Unfazed by the desertion of key allies PMK, RJD, LJP and SP, Congress Friday expressed confidence that they would come back to the UPA after the polls, saying they continue to affirm their faith in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
“They have not expressed lack of confidence in PM Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi…This is electoral politics and political parties have their own positions,” party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters here.
Sharma said “sometimes there are disagreements” but complimented these parties saying they have expressed faith in the leadership of the PM and Congress President.
He said that even in the 2004 elections, the allies came to the UPA after the polls and claimed the Congress was not worried on this count.
Asked whether the party hoped of coming to power on its own after the elections, Sharma said the Congress would improve substantially and was confident to form the next government.
“Post poll, government formation is purely a game of numbers. After the elections, post alliance will take place,” he said.
Sharma also dubbed the Third Front as one which is characterised by “negativity, egos, parties of conflicting ideology which lack cohesion and clarity”.
“There is a desperate attempt to create a motley group called Third Front which will come a cropper … It is characterised by negativity, egos, parties of conflicting ideology which lack cohesion and clarity,” he said.
Sharma sidestepped queries on whether the Congress would do business with the Left parties after the elections.
“Left Front is badly bruised … From where is it going to gain?” he said.
The Congress leader claimed the irrelevance of the Third Front and the Left would be confirmed after the elections are over.
With Congress hoping that its estranged allies would return to UPA-fold after the elections, PMK said it has not given any “assurance” to Congress on supporting it in government-formation.
However, the party appeared to keep its option open saying it would decide on support to a prime ministerial candidate only after the Lok Sabha polls.
“It is their wish. We have not given any assurance to the Congress on this,” PMK founder S Ramadoss told reporters here, a day after his party parted ways with Congress-led UPA and switched loyalties to the AIADMK-led Front.
The remarks by Ramadoss, father of Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, came in response to a query about the reported statements of some Congress leaders that PMK would support it after the elections.
The PMK chief made it clear that his party would support only “secular parties”.
Ramadoss said “we are in the AIADMK-led Front. We will abide by the decision taken by the leaders of the parties in the Front on the post-poll political scene.”
Asked what would be his party’s stand if AIADMK cast its lot with BJP after the polls, he said he would not like to reply to hypothetical questions. AIADMK was in alliance with Left parties and it would not go with the BJP, he said.