NEW DELHI, 18 January 2004 — The contours of alliances in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections began to emerge yesterday with the Sharad Pawar’s National Congress Party deciding to join hands with Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati ruling out any tie-up with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the All India Anna Dravid Munnetra Kazhgam indicating it might go it alone.

A day after his meeting with Sonia Gandhi, National Congress leader Pawar said his party was well on its way to a national alliance with Congress and like-minded parties. In Maharashtra it would have an alliance that would include the Revolutionary Party of India. Senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh met Pawar for follow-up discussions while Congress also decided that its senior minister in Maharashtra, Patangrao Kadam, would hold talks with the NCP on seat sharing in the state.

Pawar told a private TV channel that the issue of who would be the prime minister in the event of the anti-NDA alliance winning the elections was not on the agenda for now. They would follow the Janata Party example of 1977 when no one person was projected as prime minister. “We also do not have to project anyone as our leader,” he said, adding that the alliance should have a common minimum program since it was going to promise an alternative to NDA.

Sonia Gandhi also said after a meeting with party leaders from states that a common minimum program would be finalized for the elections.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who met Agriculture Minister and BJP leader Rajnath Singh, said he would urge Congress not to align with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. “Congress should be wary of BSP which has no principles,” he said.

He told reporters that he supported the federal government’s stand on Ayodhya. He said the dispute should be resolved either through mutual agreement between Hindus and Muslims or a court verdict.

“If there is a deal between the two communities... I will be a very happy man. But if there is no agreement then a court decision should be followed,” Yadav said after a 30-minutes meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani.

On his move to abolish nine districts in Uttar Pradesh and the subsequent agitation, the chief minister said he had taken the decision in the interest of the people of the state. “As a result of this decision we will be spared a lot of wasteful expenditure which can be utilized elsewhere,” said Yadav, who was accompanied by senior party leader Amar Singh.

Demanding an immediate release of Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, an independent state legislator, his father Uday Pratap Singh and MDMK leader Vaiko, the Samajwadi Party president called for scrapping of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.