Eye on polls, Cong woos BSP, SP, Left

With general elections around the corner, the Congress is keeping alliance options wide open.

With general elections around the corner, the Congress is keeping alliance options wide open.

It is keeping the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party — which lend outside support to the UPA — in good humour and also cozying up to the Left despite their bitter 2008 falling out.

“Despite all our ideological differences, one has to make it clear that the Left parties have been consistently opposed to communalism,” Congress spokesperson PC Chacko said on Saturday.

The government is also getting ready to address the BSP’s demand for quotas in promotions. On August 14, it filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a review of its verdict that had advised against quotas in promotions for posts requiring specialised eligibility conditions in institutes such as AIIMS.
Now, the attorney general is learnt to have told the government it can amend the Constitution to allow such quotas if the review petition fails.

Regarding the SP, the Centre first refrained from attacking the Akhilesh government for its failure in handling the Muzaffarnagar riots. Moreover, the

Centre and the state gave a joint commitment to the SC on Thursday about ensuring relief and rehabilitation of the victims.

The CBI’s closure of a disproportionate assets case on Friday also came as a huge relief to suspects Mulayam Singh Yadav and sons.