Cong, Left may settle differences after Modi's win

ENEMY OF MY ENEMY: The Congress and the Left may settle their differences following BJP's win.

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New Delhi: The BJP's performance in Gujarat has not only silenced the critics it has also put to rest all talk of mid-term polls at the Centre.

Says Prithviraj Chavan of the PMO, “Mid-term elections were never on the cards.”

Calling the idea a media campaign, Chavan said, “Why should there be mid-term elections? The UPA is doing so well.”

With Modi's sweeping victory setting alarm bells ringing, the secular parties may have to bury their differences, even if those differences are over the Indo-US nuclear deal. Earlier, the UPA and the Left had agreed to a ceasefire till the Gujarat elections were over but none had expected Modi to trounce the Congress. The result may reduce the Left-UPA tension and the BJP is already sensing that.

Said BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, “Prakash Karat would become a good boy now – that may happen. And then, maybe, the Congress may even get the deal passed and the Left will find some rationale to justify that because ‘BJP aa jayegi – daro!“

Now, there will be added pressure from the allies not to precipitate a snap poll.

Said Lalu Prasad Yadav, “Congress will admit it was in the wrong.“

Modi's victory may alter political equations at the Centre. It's secularism more than anything else that had brought the Left and the UPA together three-and-a-half years ago. And a resurgent BJP may again bring back those same concerns and make the Left and the UPA reconsider their stand on the nuclear deal.