Mayawati meets Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI: In a blip on the pre-election political radar that cannot be ignored, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BSP chief Mayawati met on Sunday evening.

The meeting, in the backdrop of the two parties hitting out at each other strongly over a number of issues, assumes significance as it indicates that the Congress has kept all options open on the question of alliances ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections. It also shows that Ms Mayawati, who does not need the support of the Congress in UP and is working to poach the party’s votes in a number of other states, is not ready to reveal her cards yet.

However, the meeting need not have been purely political. Ms Mayawati had alleged that the Congress was trying to implicate her in false cases. Speaking at rally in Patna recently the Uttar Pradesh chief minister had said that though she ‘got relief’ from the income-tax department in the disproportionate assets case, the Congress was trying to reopen the case to ‘exert political pressure’ on her.

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal had accepted Ms Mayawati’s contention that her personal wealth (including huge cash and properties) was made up of the ‘gifts’ given to her by BSP supporters. Subsequently, however, as Congress-BSP relations hit new lows, the Centre decided to appeal against the judgment in the Delhi high court. Ms Mayawati has also been talking of threats to her life and has demanded that she be given SPG protection.

While this itself might have given the two sides enough to talk about, the Congress could not have been keen on BSP withdrawing support to the UPA government. Significantly, after the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Ms Mayawati on Monday, the latter had taken a much softer line on the question of support withdrawal.

While the meeting does not indicate that either side will dramatically tone down the rhetoric against each other, however, it shows that Congress has not ruled out aligning with a big player in UP such as Mayawati.

For now, however, it could cast a shadow over the party’s campaign against the BSP government in UP. Also with the BSP emerging as the Congress’ competitor in a number of northern states, it might not enthuse party workers to see their bosses holding meetings with the opponent. Moreover, Mr Gandhi has articulated that a big mistake the Congress made in UP was to ally with the BSP, as a junior partner, in the 1996 assembly polls.

Given all these factors, it is not clear how the Congress can join hands with the BSP without hurting its own prospects. However, with UNPA and the Left coming closer, the Congress may have no option but to keep channels of communication open with Ms Mayawati.