ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Postponement shows up chinks in BJP, Congress armour

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The postponement of the Lok Sabha deputy speaker's election at the behest of the BJP's allies has once again brought to the fore the brittle nature of the BJP-led ruling coalition.

A crisis of sorts appears to have gripped the Vajpayee government, with allies like the Trinamul Congress, the All India Anna DMK and the Pattali Makkal Katchi flatly refusing to sign the nomination papers of the BJP's official candidate Rita Verma. Only on Sunday evening, Trinamul Congress chief Mamta Banerjee had warned BJP leaders that any haste in electing the deputy speaker would not be tolerated by her party and other allies. Banerjee had let it be known that they were for a postponement of the election until a consensus candidate could be found.

Senior BJP leader K L Sharma had contended yesterday that his party was in favour of going ahead with the election. However, by caving in to its allies' pressure, the BJP has once again proved that it has many chinks in its armour.

Even as the BJP and its allies maintain that the election has been postponed till the winter session of Parliament, political observers feel the matter had been effectively relegated to cold storage. A senior Congress leader said, "I don't think a consensus will be reached in a hurry on the issue. I think that the matter will die a natural death."

BJP leaders were tight-lipped through the day today. Party vice-president Jana Krishnamurthy admitted that "since a consensus candidate is being searched, it will be time-consuming".

The Congress party's climbdown on the matter, however, showed that the party leadership was still groping in the dark. Sharad Pawar, as the party's leader in the Lok Sabha, had a telephonic talk with party chief Sonia Gandhi after the prime minister appealed for consensus.

However, Pawar's critics in the Congress charge that he was guiding the party towards events which would personally benefit him. Tariq Anwar pointed out that there had been much criticism of Pawar for saying that it was not the right juncture to pull down the BJP-led government because in the absence of an alternative the nation would be plunged into instability. Anwar did not comment when asked whether Pawar was misguiding the party over the deputy speaker's election. He, however, said that Sonia should minutely scrutinise the matter.

Other Congress officials pointed out that had P M Sayeed contested the deputy speaker's election, he would have won. That meant the demise of the BJP government because Sayeed would not oblige the ruling coalition. But all this did not suit Pawar, the Congress leaders maintained, adding that the Maratha strongman was biding his time to seize the party leadership. That is why he had promptly given into the prime minister's entreaties.

Related Story
Deputy speaker's election postponed

Tell us what you think of this report