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President tells PM to prove his strength

George Iype in New Delhi

The 13-month-old Atal Bihari Vajpayee government plunged into a major political crisis today when President K R Narayanan asked the prime minister to seek a vote of confidence from the Lok Sabha after the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam withdrew its support.

The government, reduced to a minority after the 18-strong AIADMK contingent pulled out, will now seek a trust vote any day. Parliament reassembles tomorrow for the second phase of the Budget session.

The President's decision came after opposition leaders met him at Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening and urged him to ask Vajpayee to seek a vote of confidence.

Officials said Narayanan's decision to comply with the Opposition demand has "sufficient and sound justification". He has followed two precedents. In October 1990, President R Venkataraman had advised Prime Minister V P Singh to seek a vote of confidence after the BJP withdrew support to his National Front government.

In March 1997, United Front Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was similarly directed by President Shankar Dayal Sharma after the Congress discontinued its backing.

But Vajpayee, his Cabinet colleagues and other alliance partners put up a brave face, claiming that the government would survive despite being weakened by the body blow effected by AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha.

BJP crisis managers began working overtime to win the crucial numbers game. After a week of wooing the five-member Bahujan Samaj Party, six-member DMK, and four-member Indian National Lok Dal, Vajpayee and his colleagues are yet to get any positive signal or commitment.

DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has been evasive. But BJP sources said he has promised help in saving the government.

BSP chief Kanshi Ram has been non-committal. And though INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala has pledged to vote against the government, he is still being assiduously wooed by BJP managers.

With Jayalalitha opting out, the 275-strong Vajpayee-led coalition has been reduced to 257 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. It now needs the support of 15 more members to reach the 272 mark.

The BJP leadership has consistently stated that the numbers are "achievable", but has not spelt out how.

Meanwhile, overjoyed by the AIADMK action and the President's decision, major opposition parties like the Congress, the Communists and the Rashtriya Janata Dal huddled together for a series of meetings to give shape to an alternative coalition.

On the third day of her visit to Delhi, Jayalalitha met her crucial future partners -- Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha convenor Laloo Prasad Yadav and INLD president Chautala.

AIADMK officials said Jayalalitha's hunt for "secular-minded coalition partners" has been successful. But one AIADMK politician said since she is taking the initiative to topple the government, "her emphasis will be on a government with the AIADMK as a major active partner".

Jayalalitha's efforts have been aimed at convincing second-rung opposition parties to support the political initiative that she has seized. Sources said Surjeet, Yadav and Chautala have unconditionally agreed to a coalition government with the AIADMK and the Congress as the major partners.

The principal opposition party -- the Congress -- which had been sending out confusing signals over the past one week, also virtually decided to execute a somersault on forming an alternative coalition.

At a marathon, informal meeting of the Congress Working Committee at Sonia Gandhi's residence, most politicians forced the party president to take the most unpleasant decision -- of leading an alternative coalition.

Gandhi authorised Arjun Singh, the party's 'political spokesman', to issue a statement describing the AIADMK decision as a "welcome step".

Signalling that the Congress is not averse to forming an alternative coalition, the statement demanded Vajpayee's immediate resignation, saying he has "no moral, constitutional and political right" to continue in office after having been reduced to a minority.

But the shape, size and contours of the new coalition will be chiselled only after Gandhi meets Jayalalitha. Their first official meeting to discuss the new arrangement will be held tomorrow evening.

Prof P J Kurien, chief whip of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, said the party "has not conclusively decided to take the lead in forming a coalition government". "But we do not want the country to face another snap poll. Therefore, the Congress is not averse to the idea of a coalition government if all the secular parties come together," he told Rediff On The Net.

Kurien said Gandhi would "spell out the party's position on the issue" only after meeting Jayalalitha and other opposition leaders from the Left and the RLM.

He added that "any serious negotiations for an alternative arrangement will take place only after the Vajpayee government falls".

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