The Hindu Business Line : The ball is in Left parties' court

AFTER the euphoria and celebrations in the Congress camp, it was time for serious business. Hectic political activity was on during the day with closed-door parleys between the Congress, the NCP led by Mr Sharad Pawar, the Left parties, and the Samajwadi Party (SP) in various combinations with the sole purpose of cobbling an effective and broad alliance to form a "secular" Government.

And playing the mediator in all the deliberations - either to round off the rough edges or smoothen ruffled feathers - was the CPI-M General Secretary, Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet.

The basic problem that the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, appears to be facing is that with just 145 seats in the Lok Sabha in her party's individual capacity out of the coalition strength of 219, it is not possible for her to start calling the shots.Add to this a far more vibrant Left with 60 plus seats and another 36 of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party (SP) to make the coalition more stable and what she is faced with are differing agendas in their party manifestoes.

There is, therefore, a dire need to have a `common minimum programme' (CMP), the likes of what the United Front Government had about seven years ago.

So, without wasting any time, even before the partners had made up their minds whether or not to join the coalition, a committee headed by Dr Manmohan Singh has got hold of the various manifestoes and started the exercise of drawing up a CMP in consultation with the coalition partners.

For, the participation of quite a few constituents would depend on it.

Accordingly, Mr Sharad Pawar called on Ms Gandhi at her residence in the morning to discuss the proposed CMP and the nature of the Government.

He also held a meeting with Mr Surjeet to convince him that the Left parties should also join the Government instead of supporting it from outside so that more stability is provided to the non-NDA coalition.

During the day, with Mr Pawar parrying probing questions on the post of the Prime Minister, it was widely rumoured that the NCP leader was eyeing the plum post.

That, however, was scotched by the evening when the NCP working committee decided to hold a separate meeting on the question of participation in the new Government.

Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav did not know which way to go and kept mum throughout the day.

However, after a meeting with Mr Surjeet, the SP leader went on record that he was ready to bury all past differences and go along with whatever the Left parties finally decided - even accepting Ms Sonia Gandhi as the Prime Minister.

This was one aspect in which the SP leader had opposed the last time around and effectively blocked Ms Gandhi's chances.

The ball is now in the court of the Left parties. They have decided to meet during the weekend through Monday to decide whether to support the coalition from outside or proactively participate in the Ministry.

The meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) to elect its leader, scheduled for today, got postponed to Saturday as all the victorious candidates have not been able to make it to the Capital as yet.