Govt will survive, asserts PM

ON BOARD THE PM'S AIRCRAFT, Nov 23: As electioneering reached a shrill end this evening, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rounded off his...

ON BOARD THE PM8217;S AIRCRAFT, Nov 23: As electioneering reached a shrill end this evening, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rounded off his do-or-die campaign asserting that his Government would survive even if the pollsters8217; bleak predictions for the BJP in Wednesday8217;s assembly elections are proved correct.

8220;There is no question of the Congress being able to form an alternative government. The results of these elections will not change ground realities,8221; he said, brushing aside the queries of correspondents who accompanied him to Hyderabad and Puttaparthi for a 24-hour interlude away from the heat and dust of a poll billed as a crucial test, both for his fragile coalition and Sonia Gandhi8217;s fledgling leadership of the Congress Party.

Discounting all talk of 8220;realignment,8221; Vajpayee ticked off the reasons for his post-poll calculations of status quo at the Centre. 8220;The Telugu Desam and the Akali Dal cannot support the Congress because the Congress is their main rival in their states. The Samata Partyis with us in Bihar. Mamata Banerjee8217;s battle is with the CPIM in her state. She is not angry with the Centre. I have talked to her. And if the AIADMK goes over to the Congress, what will happen to the DMK? What will Moopanar do? I don8217;t see any scope for a political realignment. It is not easy,8221; he asserted.

So, it8217;s back to the numbers game again and Vajpayee is obviously banking on the cold logic of a fractured Lok Sabha to help him weather the storm looming ahead if the pollsters come up trumps. Like Narasimha Rao, who ran his minority government by playing on the contradictions of a hung Parliament, Vajapyee seems to feel the TINA there is no alternative factor will keep him afloat.

Yet, even as he sought comfort in level-headed political reason, it was clear that the pre-poll surveys and Congress allegations of 8220;unfit to rule8221; have hit where it hurts. 8220;The Congress says we don8217;t know how to run a government. But Shekhawat in Rajasthan has been running the government for the last eightyears,8221; he exclaimed.

What about his Government at the Centre? The Prime Minister was on the defensive. 8220;Things are getting back to normal on the international front after Pokharan. US economic sanctions have been lifted. The countries which criticised us now want to normalise and strengthen ties with us. Aren8217;t these achievements? Why doesn8217;t anyone acknowledge them?8221; he asked.

He picked out other slivers of hope to dispel the gloom-and-doom scenario painted by political pundits. 8220;The Congress is again distancing itself from the Marxists. It has to because in West Bengal and Kerala, they are fighting each other. And if the Marxists give issue-based support to the Congress as they have said they would, there will be trouble for the Congress from issue to issue. What will happen to economic reforms, to liberalisation, to globalisation?8221;

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The Prime Minister regretted the failure of political parties to evolve a set of norms for coalition governments to function smoothly despite their realisationthat there is no escape from coalitions for some time. 8220;The problems besetting coalition governments are not rooted in ideology or principles. They arise because of individual differences,8221; he pointed out.

He shook off his analytical introspective mood briefly to take a swipe at the Congress for trying to 8220;destabilise8221; his Government. 8220;The way they are openly inviting our allies to join them, I have no doubt what they are up to,8221; he said, in an obvious reference to recent statements from Congress leaders asking Mamata Banerjee to come back to her old party.

As the plane landed in Delhi, Vajpayee braced himself for the last leg of campaigning. After zipping from cyber space in Hyderabad8217;s hi-tech city to a godman8217;s other worldly retreat in one day, he was back to reality.