NEW DELHI, 25 January 2004 — Amid coalition-building exercises ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party finally decided to knock at the Congress party door.

Party general secretary Amar Singh yesterday had a long meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence here and discussed the possibility of a tie-up for the coming elections.

Emerging out from a 90-minute meeting with the AICC chief, the first direct contact between SP and Congress since efforts to firm up alliances got under way in right earnest a few weeks ago, Amar Singh however, told reporters that he came to invite Gandhi to attend his birthday function on Tuesday here.

He said he also discussed the political situation in Uttar Pradesh and clarified that SP’s stand was very clear not to join any front. “We are open to give and take support based on issues,” he said.

About a fortnight back, Sonia Gandhi had spoken to SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav over phone and sought a meeting with him in an effort to cobble up a front to take on the BJP-led NDA in the polls.

The Congress provides outside support to the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in UP.

The meeting between the two leaders assumes significance in the backdrop of warming up ties between Congress and BSP, a key player in the UP electoral scene, and SP’s refusal to be part of any combination which has in it the Mayawati-led party.

The BSP has, however, kept the guessing game going about its stand on joining any front and left the decision to Mayawati.

With decks appearing to be cleared for the return of former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, whose RKP is a constituent of Mulayam government, into BJP, other dominant players in the state, including SP and Congress, may be forced to redraw their strategies.

On the other side, within days of senior NCP leader P.A. Sangma meeting the prime minister to discuss the possibilities of a tie-up with the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha polls, another senior party leader V.C. Shukla yesterday met Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Shukla is understood to have discussed the issue of electoral adjustments with BJP in Chhattisgarh in case the two parties decided to go together.

Shukla said that NCP chief Sharad Pawar has convened a meeting here this evening to be attended by him and Sangma to sort out differences on the issue of a tie-up with Congress which threatened to split the party. Sangma has said that today’s meeting with Pawar will be “the last consultation” on the issue and after that it would be decided “this way or that way”.

While appreciating that Pawar has his own compulsions in Maharashtra, Sangma said that he too had his own in the northeast and he (NCP chief) should appreciate that.

The North East People’s Forum, of which Sangma is the convenor, has already decided to join hands with NDA for the coming Lok Saha polls.

In another development, saying that the Lok Sabha would be dissolved in the first week of February, BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan yesterday favored holding of simultaneous assembly polls in states where elections are due this year.

“The last session of Lok Sabha is beginning from Jan. 29 and the house will be dissolved in the first week of February. We hope the Election Commission would fulfill its duty to hold elections in the shortest possible time to constitute a new house,” Mahajan told reporters here.