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PM ready for trust vote

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has said that he was ready to face a no-confidence motion in Parliament.

Addressing the media in Panjim before his departure for New Delhi, he said the Bharatiya Janata Party was confident of 'managing the numbers'.

Asked why he was talking about a trial of strength in Parliament, he said it was because of media reports in this regard.

He said he had talked to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham general secretary J Jayalalitha following her threat to withdraw support to the BJP-led coalition.

Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani said, ''It is a challenging situation and we will convert it into an excellent opportunity to prove our majority.''

Earlier, addressing the BJP national executive meeting in Panaji, Vajpayee called upon his party workers to ''forge ahead with confidence and assured them that there was no looking back''.

In his concluding address, Vajpayee said there was 'better consultation and cooperation' between the government and the party after the Bangalore session held in January this year.

In an obvious reference to Jayalalitha's demand for reinstating dismissed naval chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, the prime minister said such demands will 'seriously affect national security'. He said it should be noted that even the Congress had not raised such a demand.

''However, all our allies are solidly with the government,'' he said.

''The Congress is worried about the Bofors scam,'' he pointed out.

UNI

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