NEW DELHI: Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Bhartiya Janata Party and Dev Gowda of the National Front Left Front combine are the two contenders for power in India following the Lok Sabha elections held last week.
A scheduled castes leader from Kamataka, South India, and Gowda surprised political observers by returning a large contingent of members from his state to defeat the Congress as well as the BJP candidates; He is at present chief minister of his state’s Janata Dal government.
Following hectic activities for three days in India’s capital, Gowda was unanimously elected leader of the combine to stake its claim to form the national government to replace the present caretaker Narasimha Rao government.
Earlier, in dramatic developments, West Bengal’s Marxist chief minister Jyoti Basu refused to be a claimant of prime minister’s post because his Party’s central committee twice turned down the National Front Left Front combine’s join appeal to the party not Only to share power but also to lend “the Services Of Bas a to lead India’s” government. The Communist Party (Marxist) argues that it will become weak after it accepts an office with Congress {I)’s help as the combine does not have a majority in the Lok Sabha and it will have to be dependent for support on the Railed Congress party, The party says that should it accept the office in the present circumstances, it will meet the fate the Charan Singh government met in 1980 and the Chander Shekhar government met in 1991.
Nevertheless, the CP(M) and other leftish groups have pledged support to Dev Gowda without joining his ministry, The Congress party led by Rao, too, is willing to support the government headed by Gowda, But it is unlikely to be a smooth sail for Gowda because the prime minister’s post is also claimed by ALB. Vajpayee who heads the largest party, Vajpayee may not been a position to gather 270 members to support him and his effort to form government are uncertain.
In any case, it is now for the Indian President Shankar Dayal Sharma to decide which leader to call to form government and prove his majority support in the Lok Sabha. He is likely to do so in a day or two. Meanwhile, Congress has ruled out staking claim to power for the present. The party’s spokesman Gadgil said the CPM’s refusal join the government has complicated the political situation in the country.
Both Vajpayee and Gowda are in favor of modified reform in the economic sphere.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 15, 1996
