NEW DELHI: Rightwing BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani Monday ruled out the possibility of the BJP extending support to the Congress-I for forming a government in the event of a hung Parliament.

Advani told the state-run Doordarshan television in an interview that the two parties had gone to the polls with diverse planks in the elections and hence it would be going against the verdict of the people if the BJP joined Congress-I to form the government.

Going by the results he said the party was likely to get around 100 seats and hence people had cast upon it the duty to function as an opposition party in Parliament.

Advani said the party’s performance was remarkable in the sense it had been able to establish itself as an All India party besides heading for a majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

Also he said in a span of just two years the party from a mere two seats in Parliament had secured 100 odd seats besides forming four state governments including in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh and the largest state of Madhya Pradesh.

Advani said the performance of the party in the 1991 elections was satisfying considering that the BJP fought on its own and that there was no anti Congress-I wave.

He said in all previous elections all non-Congress-I parties had to align themselves to put up a fight against the Congress-I.

On the issue of replacing a controversial 16th century mosque with a temple that his pro-Hindu party has been advocating Advani said the party had promised to establish a Ram temple if it came to power both at the centre and in Uttar Pradesh

As the BJP was heading towards forming the government in Uttar Pradesh Advani said the party would try to solve the issue amicably respecting the sentiments of the people.

Later participating in the TV panel discussion the BJP vice president Sikander Bakht said the party had not set any time frame for construction of the temple but was fully committed to it.

He said it was left to the BJP government in the state to go into these details

He said the results showed that the BJP had broken new ground all over the country. The Ram wave was a factor for its success in Uttar Pradesh in particular.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 21, 1991