Patils first call: single-largest party or pre-poll pact? Experts debate

There is no settled law in so far as the question of who should get the first shot at government formation: the leader of the single-largest party,or the pre-poll alliance.

While there are indications that the President has already started holding informal consultations with Constitutional experts to get a feel of the system,legal experts that The Indian Express spoke to are unanimous in their opinion that ensuring that the country gets a stable government should be the focus of the President.

The majority,however,assert that the leader of the largest pre-poll alliance should be invited by the President to form the government if its numbers are more than those of the single-largest party.

Constitutional expert and senior Supreme Court lawyer K K Venugopal feels the President should call the largest pre-poll alliance first if its numbers are more than those of the single-largest party.

In case the difference in seats between the largest pre-poll alliance and the single-largest party is significant,I feel the President should invite the leader of the alliance to form the government and prove his majority in the House. If he fails to do so,then the President may call the leader of the single-largest party, Venugopal says.

Another senior advocate,P P Rao,says in the event of a hung Parliament,the President should hold wide-ranging consultations with leaders of all political parties. She should feel the pulse of all parties and know their wishes. Then she should call the leader who enjoys majority support. She should be satisfied that the leader who she invites to form the government enjoys majority support,as President K R Narayanan did in 1998 when he asked A B Vajpayee to from the government. However,she may also call a session of the House and ask it to elect its leader, Rao adds.

Constitutional expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash C Kashyap is of the view that the President has three options. The President should first invite the leader of the single-largest party or the pre-poll electoral alliance,whosoever has more numbers. By pre-poll alliance,one refers to an alliance which went to the electorate together, he adds.

Kashyap says in case the leader of the single-largest party or of the bigger pre-poll electoral alliance fails to get the numbers,then the President should use Article 862 of the Constitution which,though never put to use at the national level,empowers the President to send a message to the House to elect the leader of the House by voting.

Says leading Constitutional expert Rajeev Dhavan,The President should explore the situation by talking to all political parties. She should invite the leader of the single-largest party or the alliance which has more numbers. Her main task is to ensure that the people of India get a stable government.

Experts also feel the Presidents action would be guided by the majority judgment of a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the Bihar Assembly dissolution case. The court had come down heavily on the action of the then Bihar Governor,Buta Singh,in recommending dissolution of the Bihar Assembly without considering all options. The court ruled that Singhs action was arbitrary as its only purpose was to stall the Nitish Kumar-led Janata DalUnited from forming a government.

This judgment,experts feel,applied the brakes on arbitrary actions by a partisan President or Governor.