By Nelson Banya
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - A senior official inZimbabwe's ruling party said on Saturday he would support oneof the main challengers to President Robert Mugabe in the March29 election in a major political blow to the veteran leader.
Dumiso Dabengwa, a politburo member in Mugabe's ZANU-PF,threw his weight behind former finance minister Simba Makoniduring the launch of Makoni's presidential campaign.
"This is a rescue operation. We have stood up to rescue thesituation," Dabengwa told Reuters.
The move could significantly strengthen the bid by Makoni,a former Mugabe ally, to defeat the defiant president who hasbeen in power since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in1980.
Makoni is standing as an independent after being expelledfrom ZANU-PF and Mugabe also faces Morgan Tsvangirai, a longtime rival from the main opposition Movement for DemocraticChange (MDC).
Mugabe has capitalised on a weak opposition to maintain atight grip on Zimbabwe despite a severe economic crisis andcritics say he has used repressive measures to stifle dissent.
Addressing a rally of about 6,000 people at White CityStadium, Makoni blamed Zimbabwe's leadership for the economicproblems that have brought the country to its knees.
"We are in a movement for renewal, revival," he told acrowd that mobbed him. Some held up placards saying "Sima ForThe People" and "Let's Get Zimbabwe Working Again" inZimbabwe's second city Bulawayo, an opposition stronghold.
POWER STRUGGLE, DAILY MISERY
Dabengwa declared his support for Makoni at a meetingbetween the presidential hopeful and business leaders.
"We urged him (Makoni) to come clean and take the burdenand we will give him the necessary facilitation and support,"said Dabengwa, a former home affairs minister and commander inthe liberation movement before independence.
Millions of Zimbabweans hoping for an end to dailyhardships are expected to vote in the presidential,parliamentary and municipal polls described by Mugabe and hisopponents as a landmark poll in the post-independence period.
Mugabe has denounced opponents as charlatans, witches andpolitical prostitutes. Dabengwa said he did not intend to leaveZANU-PF but it is unlikely the party will allow him to stay.
"If they think we are political prostitutes and decide tothrow us out, so be it," he told Reuters.
Mugabe says Western foes are working with the opposition tooust him in retaliation for his policy of seizing white-ownedcommercial farms to resettle landless blacks.
His government has effectively been under Western economicsanctions since ZANU-PF's controversial election victory in2000. The MDC says Mugabe has fraudulently won previouselections and unleashed violence against opposition supporters.
Mugabe promised in his election manifesto to boostagricultural production by continuing to equip those farmerswho had benefited from the land grabs.
His opponents have also made ambitious promises to ease thecrisis ravaging Zimbabweans, who are more concerned withbattling the world's highest inflation rate of more than100,000 percent and food and fuel shortages, than politics.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; Writing by Michael Georgy;Editing by Robert Woodward)