10 March 1998
Reuters News
English
(c) 1998 Reuters Limited

NEW DELHI, March 10 (Reuters) – India was set on Tuesday for a new coalition government led by Hindu nationalist leader Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Vajpayee, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was invited by President K.R. Narayanan to form a new federal government, ending a week of suspense after the counting of votes from an inconclusive national election.

“I will be meeting the President tonight. I am going to tell him that BJP and its friendly allies in a coalition are capable of giving a stable government,” Vajpayee told reporters at his residence.

It will be the second time in two years that Vajpayee steps into India’s top political post. The BJP formed a short-lived government for 13 days in May 1996 but was forced to resign when it failed to win backing in a parliamentary vote of confidence.

But the 71-year-old poet-politician was more confident this time after pledges of support from a patchwork quilt of regional parties.

“Everybody knows we are short of a clear majority but we are in contact with other (parliament) members. We are confident of making a majority,” he said.

The BJP and its allies account for 253 of the 539 declared seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. The coalition needs the backing of 19 more members in the 545-seat house for a clear majority.

The gap is likely to be filled by more regional groups in the fragmented parliament that do not join the treasury benches but offer conditional support.

President Narayanan’s office confirmed Narayanan had sent Vajpayee a letter that read:

“Insofar as yours is the single largest party in Lok Sabha (the lower house of parliament) and the single largest pre-poll alliance, I request you to let me know whether you are able and willing to form a stable government, which can secure the confidence of the house.”

Vajpayee said he would meet Narayanan at 8 p.m. (14:30 GMT) on the offer and convey his readiness to form a government.

Under India’s constitution, Narayanan will then convene a session of parliament’s lower house to test Vajpayee’s majority.

Vajpayee was the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate throughout the two-month election campaign. Elections for the 539 declared seats took place on February 16, 22, 23, 28 and March 7. Four remaining constituencies will vote later this month and in June.

The two remaining seats in the Lok Sabha are nominated by President Narayanan.

Vajpayee has won backing from a rainbow coalition of at least 17 groups, including independent MPs, that embraces firebrand socialists as well as regional politicians who will be influential in the handing out of key government portfolios.

The BJP Is looking for a magic majority figure of 272 among 543 elected members.

Asked how he would cope with the demands of such a diverse alliance, Vajpayee said: “The task is difficult but we think we can achieve it.”

The centrist Congress party and its allies command 167 seats, and the centre-left United Front, which was toppled from power last November, has 98 lawmakers.

But they have failed in their efforts to revive a political marriage that foundered after the Congress withdrew vital backing to the Front’s government.

President Narayanan had mandated last December 4, when he disbanded parliament, that a new government must be in place by March 16.

The new government will end three months of political flux, but late on Tuesday the BJP was still busy thrashing out a “national agenda” that will cover common ground with its allies.

(c) Reuters Limited 1998.