ELECTIONS '98 COMMENTARY
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BJP allies won't switch sides: Barnala

Senior Akali Dal leader and Union Food Minister Surjit Singh Barnala today said adverse election results in four state assemblies was not a referendum against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition at the Centre. He did not foresee the possibility of some BJP allies joining hands with the Congress.

Commenting on the results in the four states, Barnala, who met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the evening along with Samata Party leader George Fernandes and Lok Shakti leader Ramakrishna Hegde, said all results were on expected lines except that of Madhya Pradesh.

He also did not see the situation drifting towards mid-term polls.

"I don't think so," he said. "It appears remote to me," was his answer when asked if the BJP allies would join hands with the Congress in forming the next government.

Asked if the results were the result of a disillusionment on the price front, Barnala said, ''We have faced the situation and the prime minister had convened a meeting of chief ministers yesterday.''

He did not agree that the meeting would have yielded results if convened earlier because during the elections, they (the CMs) would have discussed politics rather than realities.

UNI Assembly Election '98

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