Coalition not a permanent arrangement,says Cong

New Delhi, Jan 24 (UNI) While reiterating its commitment to the coalition Government at the Centre, the Congress today said a coalition was "not the permanent arrangement" but it was natural for a national party like it to think in terms of forming a Government on its own strength in future.

"However, this is just a loud thinking," AICC General Secretary and Chairperson of the Congress Media Cell Janardan Dwivedi said, adding every national party had the liberty to think in terms of forming a Government at the Centre on its own strength.

Reacting to the survey conducted by the CNN-IBN-CSDS Hindustan Times indicating the possibility of continuing trend of coalition, Mr Dwividi said this might be the personal opinion of the organisations which conducted the survey. "The Congress does not take its decisions based on one or two surveys." Every party made an assessment of the political situation in its own manner. It was not necessary that every party considered the future polilical situation in terms of coalition only, he said in a chat with mediapersons here.

He clarified that the present coalition government was running smoothly on the basis of Common Minimum Programme."We are satisfied with the functioning of the coalition Government," he said. "The Congress-led coalition Government has been formed to run for five years and it will complete its full term." Replying to a question, he ruled out the possibility of a mid term poll to the Lok Sabha.

Mr Dwivedi denied the criticism from a UPA ally that the Congress was not observing the "Maryada" of a coalition, saying it was fully observing coalition dharma.

Replying to another question, Mr Dwivedi asserted that, ''UPA is a principled coalition while the NDA was an opportunistic alliance." He recalled that Congress President Sonia Gandhi had declined to become the Prime Minister, though all the UPA allies were unanimously in favour of her assuming the post.

UNI