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BJP exerting pressure on President over floor test, says Sathe

Former Union minister and senior Congress leader, Vasant Sathe, today charged that the Vajpayee government was mounting pressure on President K R Narayanan, for not directing a confidence motion in Lok Sabha if AIADMK leader Jayalalitha withdraws support.

Talking to mediapersons in Nagpur today, Sathe urged the President not to succumb to pressure from the Vajpayee government, but to direct it to a floor test if the AIADMK withdraws support from the government.

In view of the withdrawal of one of the major partners from the government it is reduced into a minority one, and the confidence vote is obligatory, he pointed out.

According to reports, the BJP is relying on the precedent set during the tenure of the Narasimha Rao, who ran a minority government for three years without being asked to face a confidence vote after the first one.

The present government has no moral right to rule the country without proving its majority on the floor of the house after the AIADMK formally withdraws support to the Vajpayee government, he further said.

Answering a question, he said that if the BJP-led government collapses in the wake of contradictions among its allies, the Congress should form a government at the Centre with Sonia Gandhi becoming the prime minister.

According to him, there is a strong possibility of the Congress forming a government at the Centre with inside or outside support from like-minded secular parties. If the Congress refuses to form a government, it will support an alternative secular government from outside, he added.

In case, a secular and stable coalition does not come about, the only sensible alternative would be to form a "national coalition" under the leadership of the "nominee" of the President K R Narayanan. This national coalition, apart from having an agreed economic programme, should have a specific agenda for bringing about a necessary constitutional amendment to elect the prime minister directly by an electoral college, consisting of all elected representatives in the constitutional institutions, right down to the panchayat level, through the method of proportional representation, single transferable vote, he opined.

According to the veteran Congress leader, this directly elected prime minister can be removed only by a recall by more than 50 per cent of the voters of the electoral college. "Thus, there will be an in-built stability of the executive and also Parliament which is absolutely essential for even economic growth", he pointed out.

On the other hand, Sathe said that if it was not possible to form an alternative government at the Centre due to certain contradictions among secular forces in the country, fresh elections should be held.

He admitted that a majority of Lok Sabha members were against holding a mid-term elections. However, he said if elections were forced, the Congresss would come out with flying colours to repeat its performance of 1980.

UNI

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