BJP gets ready to step in at Centre

NEW DELHI, Nov 19: There is a strong move by the BJP to try and form a government when the Gujral ministry is brought down by the Congress....

NEW DELHI, Nov 19: There is a strong move by the BJP to try and form a government when the Gujral ministry is brought down by the Congress.In a curious gesture today, senior BJP leaders, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh walked together from their office in Parliament House to the Central Hall this morning forming an impressive phalanx which became the subject of speculation during the day.

LK Advani, who came to Parliament after a long gap today and could be seen talking to MPs belonging to the Karnataka Janata Dal including former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s confidante B L Shankar, joined his party colleagues and the BJP leaders sat together for a while as members of all parties walked up to them to exchange greetings with them.“Step into my parlour,” they seemed to say to the members who had gathered there soon after both Houses had adjourned following the obituary references.

The BJP is now exploring all avenues of forming an alternative government if the Gujral ministry falls, which it is expected to do, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the master of kootniti(realpolitik) is one of those here leading the operation.

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Vajpayee called on President KR Narayanan in the evening to press him to explore options other than dissolution.

BJP leaders do not deny that they are in touch with other party leaders, including Congressmen and those in the Janata Dal who see a bleak future for themselves. Their ally Samata leader George Fernandes floated a trial balloon today for the formation of a “national government” headed by Vajpayee comprising of the BJP, Congress or a section of it and some regional parties to provide stability to the political system.

Though all kinds of permutations and combinations were doing the rounds in Parliament House today to avert a poll, including one that envisages support to the BJP by the DMK, TDP, AGP a group from the JD and and a section of the Congress, if nothing else the BJP wants to preempt any possibility of allowing Kesri to have a shot at forming a Congress-led government.

BJP leaders say that the anti-Congressism of those constituents of the UF, barring the Left parties, which have to fight the Congress on their home turf (TDP, AGP, Karnataka, and Orissa JD), could bring about a realignment of forces. The BJP believes it has ladoos in both hands. In the event of elections, which is a likely scenario, the poll issue will be the report of Justice MC Jain and the UF and Congress will go to town trading charges against each other resulting in a lot of muckraking. This will be to the advantage of BJP. It will not become their principal target. Nor will such a situation create confidence in the voter about a post poll non-BJP coalition.If there is a compromise between the UF and the Congress now, whichever group climbs down will suffer a loss of face and authority and this too goes to suit the BJP. The ouster of the DMK from the United Front could turn the Dravidian party into a potential ally of the BJP.

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Vajpayee made a point of attending DMK leader NVN Somu’s funeral last week and travelled back to Delhi with M Karunanidhi. Advani said the UF was too weak to defend the DMK.The exit of the DMK, voluntary or otherwise, would reduce the clout of the regional parties who are not going to like it.

Dumping the DMK would also weaken the UF because it would underscore the point that it has no hesitation in sacrificing its constituents for power.

It gave up Deve Gowda earlier this year under pressure from the Congress to keep its government going.And in the unlikely event of the BJP managing to form a government in the eleventh Lok Sabha, it would have plopped the ladoo which it holds in its hand into its mouth.