New Delhi, May 13: Buoyed by its success in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress and its allies would stake claim to form a secular government at the Centre after the formalities of election of Congress parliamentary leader and consultations with allies are over. "We will stake claim to form a non-NDA government led by Congress after all the formalities are over," political secretary to Congress president Ahmed Patel told reporters.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi would have an interaction tonight with senior party leaders, including several CWC members, on the formation of the government.
CWC will formally meet tomorrow to finalise the party`s strategy and modalities to form the next government. The CWC meeting would be followed by a meeting of newly-elected Congress MPs, possibly tomorrow evening to elect Gandhi as their leader. Gandhi will hold a joint meeting with leaders of Congress allies which is likely to take place on May 15 to decide on the name of the leader, who will head the government.
Asked whether the support of Samajwadi Party headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav was still needed in view of Congress and its allies and Left parties heading for a clear majority, Patel said he would appeal to all secular parties including SP to support the Congress-led government.
Asked about reasons for BJP`s defeat, Patel said, "BJP misguided people and never fulfilled the promises it made in its election manifesto, whereas, our record shows that we fulfilled the promises we made."
Patel said BJP`s top leadership, including the Prime Minister, made "arrogant and irresponsible" utterances about "feel good" and "India shining" leading to its defeat. BJP also tried to create an "artificial atmosphere" which was rejected by people, he said adding that no section was happy with BJP government. In Gujarat, the party played with religious sentiments of people which led to their setback in the state."Our priority will be to check unemployment, solve farmers problems and problems related to middle class", he said.
Asked about the common minimum programme of the Congress led non-NDA government, AICC general seceratry Ambika Soni said, "Sure, we will have a common minimum programme (CMP) to smoothly run the government".
She said Congress and secular allies in the Left had worked successfully in the Parliament and there was "no problem" in arriving at a CMP of the coalition partners. Bureau Report