NEW DELHI, Dec 4: Despite intense pressure from some of its constituents to go soft on the Congress, the United Front today made it clear that there will be no let-up in its anti-Congress, anti-BJP plank in the run-up to the mid-term polls.

Speaking to reporters hours after President K R Narayanan had dissolved the eleventh Lok Sabha, Front spokesman S Jaipal Reddy squarely blamed the Congress for forcing ``an unwanted election on an unwilling nation'' and ruled out any pre-poll alliance with the party in any part of the country.

Reddy however parried questions on the possibility of the 13-party coalition seeking its help to form the Government in the event of a hung Parliament.``We made all reasonable efforts for a fair settlement, but they failed because the Congress was absolutely unreasonable in its stand during the entire crisis,'' he said.

The tone and tenor of Reddy's statement made it amply clear that, with the Congress on the decline, the UF was gearing up to occupy the secular space being vacated by the former. It was also aimed at setting the tone for its campaign for the forthcoming elections where secularism, national unity and achievements of its two Governments would be its main planks. The CPI also echoed Reddy's sentiment when its national secretary D Raja said that it was the Congress which had to take the blame for forcing an election on the country by making ``unjustified and unethical'' demands on the basis of the Jain Commission report.

He also attacked the BJP for trying to ``fish in troubled waters'' which left the UF with no option but to propose dissolution of the Lok Sabha. The UF, he said, was ready to face the electorate.

Reddy said ``You may recall that the V P Singh government sacrificed itself at the altar of secular principles in 1990. This time round, we sacrificed our Government once again at the altar of the principle of national unity. We were prepared to forego our Government rather than inflict any psychic wound on any important ethnic community of the country.''

According to him, the UF had taken a conscious decision to sacrifice its Government because the Jain Commission report was not only indiscriminate in its indictment of major political formation such as the DMK, but also of Tamils as a community.

He accused the Congress of helping the BJP indirectly in gaining prominence. ``The latest example of this trend,'' he observed, ``is the reported readiness of 40 Congress MPs to join the BJP in helping it form a Government at the Centre.'' He said this had ``exposed the secular soft belly of the Congress and the moral soft belly of the BJP. We are distressed at the fact that even senior leaders such as Vajpayee and Advani were flaunting this as their political achievement.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.