HVK Archives: BJP will stake claim to forming Govt
BJP will stake claim to forming Govt - The Observer
Observer Political Bureau
()
7 April 1997
Title : BJP will stake claim to forming Govt
Author : Observer Political Bureau
Publication : The Observer
Date : April 7, 1997
For the first time since Mr Deve Gowda-led United Front Government
was gripped by survival crisis following Congress President Sitaram
Kesri's letter bomb, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday declared
its intentions to form the next Government.
"If we think, we can provide a stable Government. After the fall
of the Deve Gowda Government, we will stake claim," declared BJP
spokesperson Sushma Swaraj at the end of her party's crucial
two-day national executive meet here.
This is the first categorical statement from the BJP, ever since
the Congress withdrew its support to the Deve Gowda Government last
Sunday, that it will not shy away from Government formation. Ms
Swaraj clarified that the claim will be made if and only if the
party was sure of a majority first.
BJP President L K Advani gave enough hints last week that his party
may have another crack at Government formation when he urged the
President to start the process of Government formation from the
very beginning. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Atal Behari
Vajpayee, too, in his address to the national executive on Sunday
echoed similar line, saying: "The country is now looking towards
the BJP. Only the BJP can extricate the country from the mess the
Congress and the United Front have landed it into, and provide
stability, security and good governance to the country."
At the same time, the BJP is also gearing up for any snap general
elections, which it feels is a certainty this year. The members of
the national executive were asked by the leadership to be in battle
readiness for the general elections, in which the party can only
gain.
The BJP national executive took stock of the current fluid and fast
developing political situation, and authorised the BJP
parliamentary party to take appropriate decision on April 11.
Besides, it was not easy to predict the outcome and shape of the
political events, given the various formulae doing the rounds.
Hence the BJP executive left all the strategy decisions, to the
parliamentary party but set it a clear-cut goal to ensure the fall
of the United Front Government.
"We will not save the United Front Government," the BJP
spokesperson said briefing the press persons on the deliberations
on the concluding day of the two-day national executive meeting.
Her statement was in response to a volley of questions seeking
clarifications on the BJP's role in the special Lok Sabha sitting
on April 11. The special sitting of the lower has been convened on
President Shankar Dayal Sharma's directives to facilitate the Prime
Minister to prove his majority.
But still leaving enough scope for confusion, Ms Swaraj said: "We
are against the Government and not against Deve Gowda." She was
once again careful enough not to be cornered into giving a
categorical, cut and dry reply. "We will vote against confidence
motion, if and when the Prime Minister moved it.
Addressing the national executive members, Mr Vajpayee said the
political situation will begin to "shape up" after April 11, when
the United Front constituents starts beginning to review their
options afresh.
"Only the BJP stands to gain from the current political situation.
The Congress and the United Front definitely stand to lose in the
short as well as long run," Ms Swaraj asserted.
Towards this end, the BJP plans to mount a campaign highlighting
the 'real reasons' for withdrawal of support by the Congress to the
United Front. Giving enough indications of this, Mr Vajpayee
informed the BJP national executive members that the UF had
contemplated 103 cases against the Congress leaders.
The politics of persecution, launched by the UF, is perhaps the
main reason for Kesri's action, Mr Vajpayee felt.
He said he was of the opinion that the UF Government would fall
because of the inherent contradictions in the multi-party
coalition. "I did not hope that the Congress will withdraw support
so soon," the former Prime Minister admitted at the meeting.
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