Bjp Reconciled To Prospect Of Cong, Uf Understanding

The BJP seems to have reconciled to the prospect of the Congress and the United Front reaching an understanding to stave off the present stalemate facing the eleventh Lok Sabha.

This issue was discussed in detail at a meeting of the partys senior office-bearers. Among those who attended were former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, party president LK Advani, Sunder Singh Bhandari, KL Sharma, ML Khurana, Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan Anantha Kumar and Sushma Swaraj.

Most BJP leaders who attended the meeting hold that Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda would have to go and Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) chief GK Moopanar would emerge as the consensus candidate for the prime ministers post. Despite the sabre-rattling, both the sides would climb down and a compromise would be reached even before April 11.

The meeting rejected Samata Party president George Fernandes proposal for a Congress-BJP coalition government. Fernandes had presented the proposal to Advani. The latter had some reservation but he was not opposed to it, BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said. It had thus become necessary for the party to articulate its considered view on the issue. Fernandes had met Congress president Sitaram Kesari before making this proposal, Swaraj said.

Perhaps the BJP was not as much opposed to the proposal as its alliance partners, particularly the Shiv Sena, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP). Leaders of these parties expressed their strong reservations against the proposal, which was ultimately dropped, Swaraj said.