Onus on Cong. to save UDF

The impact of Kerala Congress (M)’s exit from the United Democratic Front is slowly sinking in on the coalition leadership.

The first major challenge is to keep the coalition intact and prevent further erosion. The second challenge is in building confidence among the UDF constituents that the coalition is stable and still saleable even after the exit of a 35-year-old ally.

After the debacle in the Assembly elections, discontented coalition partners such as the Janata Dal (United) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party blamed the Congress for the miserable results. The problem before the UDF is that Mr. Mani’s hard stand against the Congress could be played up by the other constituents, who too have similar complaints. The only difference is that these constituents do not have the options Mr. Mani is exercising. Parties like JD(U) and RSP have been wary about taking political risks.

The Congress will have to travel the extra mile to build its partners’ confidence. An attempt is now being made by Congress leaders to sink their differences and project a united image. The major impact of Mr. Mani’s exit is that it casts doubt on the stability of the UDF. The BJP is surprisingly underplaying its interest in Mr. Mani’s exit from the UDF because of the latter’s proclamation of a policy of equidistance, the contours of which are not clear at present.

A cautions ‘ban’

After the initial reactions to Mr. Mani’s decision to lead his party out of the Opposition coalition, the Congress has now clamped a ban on any reaction that might hurt Mr. Mani’s sentiments. The party leaders want to keep a window open if Mr. Mani were to reconsider his decisions.

Several well-wishers of the two parties have been advising their respective leaders to observe restraint in their responses that might prove to be detrimental to a possible plan of rapprochement.