Italian-born Gandhi will meet President Abdul Kalam today armed with letters of support from several parties to stake her claim to government after ousting the ruling Hindu nationalists in India's biggest election upset last week.

Congress, which was holding its own meetings yesterday, has 145 MPs on its own and with the support of pre-election allies and the communists comfortably crosses the 272-seat mark to form a stable government.

Leftist parties, which won a pivotal 60-plus seats in the election, have pledged their support for Gandhi, but were debating yesterday whether to formally join her coalition or simply back it from outside.

LEFT EQUATION

But Congress and the communists are direct political opponents in the Indian left's two state bastions, eastern West Bengal and southern Kerala, and in the northeastern state of Tripura.

Senior communist leaders including West Bengal's former chief minister Jyoti Basu and Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet are reported to view joining the government as a historic opportunity to wield influence.

They say the communists, by joining the national government, could push for an economic agenda that favours the poor, even if they stop short of calling for a complete end to the privatisation drive of outgoing prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

But other communists say the bloc could wield greater influence by being crucial support for a Congress-led government without taking part in the messy business of government.

The Hindustan Times newspaper reported that some communists believed joining the government would erode their support base of farmers and workers.

But Gandhi's Congress has secured enough support from its allies almost to guarantee she will be the next prime minister -- and India's first foreign-born leader.

She will also be the family's fourth prime minister after her slain husband, Rajiv, mother-in-law Indira and Indira's father Jawaharlal Nehru.

Congress, which first put India on the path to reform by ditching its socialist economics a decade ago, has pledged to continue Vajpayee's programme of economic modernisation, but with "a human face".

Investors fear the leftists will block or slow reforms, especially the sale of bloated, monolithic state firms.

Analysts also expect Gandhi's government to repackage the reforms after India's hundreds of millions of poor punished Vajpayee and the BJP for failing to pass on the benefits of a booming economy, which instead went mainly to the relatively small urban middle class.

ECONOMIC DOCTOR

When India's share markets went into a tailspin last week after Congress scored the upset win, the party wheeled out its trump card to soothe nervous investors: an elderly, softly-spoken bureaucrat-turned-politician admired at home and abroad.

Manmohan Singh, hailed as the man who set India on the path to economic reform 13 years ago, looks almost certain to be finance minister.

"Market Left bruised, Congress calls in the Doctor," read a headline in The Indian Express, after the party called on Singh to assuage investor fears that the rag-tag band of communist, socialist and regional groups it needs to govern would stall reforms seen as vital to keeping India's economy in the fast lane.

The 'Doctor' administered the medicine in measured tones.

"We'll pursue policies that promote rapid social and economic development, growth of savings and investments, create a favourable climate for enterprise," the turbaned Sikh told reporters, adding he was confident Congress could "overcome these 'small problems' of working with communists".

(Reuters, AFP)