Jairam Ramesh not in favour of outside support to Third Front

Union minister and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today said that he was not in favour of his party extending support to the Third Front from outside and he wanted the party to be a part of the government. (India Votes 2014: coverage)

Asked if the Congress would support the Third Front if both the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance failed to win a majority, Mr Ramesh initially dismissed the question as hypothetical, but later said, "I think the Congress party's policy has always been that we will support any political combination that demonstrates commitment to secular values, which means basically the parties not wedded to BJP".

"That's what we did in 1996 (extending outside support to the United Front government). But as of now, I can't say, depends on the relative numbers," he said in an interview to PTI.

"The ideal situation should be no outside support," Mr Ramesh said. (India Votes 2014: Candidates)

"I believe if you support a government, you must support from within. These are my personal views....to ensure political stability, any alliance must have all its partners in governance," he said.

In UPA-I, Mr Ramesh said, the CPI-M and the CPI, which extended outside support to the government "made life miserable for us".

Quoting senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury's reported statement at the time that the Left parties "bark but don't bite", Mr Ramesh said, "But sometimes barking is also bad...constantly being barked at. The CPI-M and the CPI didn't bite but they bit at the end...they withdrew support on the nuclear deal."

Mr Ramesh admitted that the Congress was fighting the elections with its back to the wall, but dismissed the opinion polls projecting only around 100 seats for it.

"That's a gross underestimation," he said, adding that his party's assessment was that it would pick up more seats in all states than the projections of the opinion polls.

"The same situation happened in 2004 and the same situation prevailed in 2009. Both in 2004 and in 2009, the NDA was given clear, convincing majority which didn't materialise," he said.
Post-results, he said, it would be UPA-3 or NDA-2 or UF-2. (India Votes 2014: Schedule)

"My own belief is that the Congress will play a significant role in the formation of the next government," he said, but added that he did not see Congress repeating its 2009 performance; nor did he see an electoral debacle for it.

"It has been written off by the press, it has been written off by opinion polls. But let me tell you, it's not over, till it's over," he said, adding that "we are fighting to be in power, we are not fighting to be an opposition party".