Suitable alliances invited at regional level 8212; Congress

Asked to specify the parties with which the Congress would have adjustments, Pranab Mukherjee said information about them would be given only after the tie-ups were arrived at.

He said experience had shown time and again that coalition governments were unable to last their full tenure and appealed to the people to ensure that a single political party gets a majority on its own in the next mid-term election to the Lok Sabha.

History has shown that only a single party government can run for its full term, while coalitions collapse after some time, the Congress leader said.

The Congress had lost in 1977 but returned to power in 1980, he said and added that it was for the peopleto realise that coalition governments cannot ensure stability.

Mukherjee said his party was perfectly justified in not supporting West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu as a Prime Minister after the fall of the Vajpayee Government. 8220;Why should we have supported Basu as Prime Minister?8221; he asked.

To a query, Pranab Mukherjee said Congress president Sonia Gandhi had stated that Basu was not interested in becoming Prime Minister, simply because he had told her so.

He said democracy was a game of numbers under which a Government can be toppled by only one vote and those with only around 30 MPs can aspire to become Prime Ministers.

Answering queries, the senior Congress leader said that even before the motion of confidence in the Vajpayee Government was discussed in the Lok Sabha, other non-Congress parties opposed to the BJP had assured their outside support to a Congress Government.

8220;They had been told categorically that the Government would be run as per Congress policies alone. While most of themstuck to their stand, some others changed their minds.8221; Asked if the Congress felt betrayed by the Samajwadi Party, Mukherjee said, 8220;We don8217;t feel betrayed, but we do feel let down.8221;

Mukherjee criticised the BJP for raking up the issue of Sonia having been born in Italy.

Congress fights elections on the basis of issues and not on the basis of personalities, he said.

To a question, he said Sonia would be projected as the nation8217;s next Prime Minister by the Congress.

The senior Congress leader said there were many countries which allowed their citizens to have dual citizenship.

Asked if Sonia was also retaining her Italian citizenship, Mukherjee said that he did not know if she was.