NEW DELHI, July 9: Congress President Sitaram Kesri today indicated that he may after all bail out Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, albeit indirectly.

Talking to mediapersons, Kesri said his party would not back a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sponsored no-confidence motion against Yadav. However, he added that the Congress will also not go along with corruption. The hint to Yadav was clear and on the lines of what Kesri is said to have told Yadav privately -- that he step down and make his nominee the Chief Minister of Bihar.

That would save face for Kesri but may not be much to Yadav's liking. Thus far, there has been no positive response from Yadav's side to Kesri's suggestion and the Congress has thus kept the issue open saying it would decide as and when the test of majority will have Options for the Congress are somewhat limited in the Laloo Yadav issue. Should the BJP's no-confidence motion be taken up, the Congress may abstain from voting thus taking a stance away from both communalism and corruption as Kesri has been saying all along. Should a Left-sponsored no-confidence motion be taken up, Kesri will be in a bit of bother. The Left can hardly be called communal and the Congress may have to do some quick thinking on this score.

Should Yadav step down, a remote possibility as of now, all problems would disappear for the Congress which can then back Yadav's nominee for the post and rest easy. The dilemma is strong as Yadav forms an integral part of Kesri's plans to wrest power from the United Front at an appropriate time in the future.

Now that Yadav has split the Janata Dal and formed his own party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, he can easily back Kesri's attempt to form a government at the Centre on an anti-BJP platform. This was Kesri's calculation anyway when he brought the Deve Gowda government down but the Janata Dal did not split at that time.

Kesri was today soft on Prime Minister I K Gujral again saying the Congress was not being sidelined now and support to the Gujral government would continue. ``Not only till this year's Independence Day but till next year's August 15th too, the Congress will back the Gujral government,'' Kesri said.

Kesri feels that he needs at least two years to revive the Congress, a timeframe which his rival Sharad Pawar also talked of during the Congress organisational election. The Congress president has indeed been making references to grassroot work and avoiding a lust for power to his partymen.

Kesri is apparently buying time before he makes another bid for New Delhi. The next time he will want consensus before he makes his move and the promise to back Gujral till the latter half of 1998 is in this context. The attempts to save Laloo Yadav are also keeping this in mind.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.