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Congress says 'no' to Mulayam's plea to pull down Vajpayee government

The Congress has rejected the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha's demand for taking the initiative to topple the Vajpayee government at the Centre, and said it will try a shot at governance only after the ruling combine falls under its own weight of contradictions and non-performance.

Party spokesman Ajit Jogi told newspersons that the Congress was playing the role of a responsible Opposition and soon after the fall of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition, it would form a stable and fair government.

Jogi said the Congress would not hesitate to take up the national responsibility of forming an alternative government immediately.

The Congress's reaction comes close on the heels of RLM president Mulayam Singh Yadav's statement in Bhopal on Tuesday that the day Sonia Gandhi becomes serious, the current regime would fall.

Jogi refuted the BJP's allegations that the Congress was trying to destabilise the government, saying his party had not done anything which was aimed at creating a crisis for the government.

The Opposition role was confined to three things -- oppose, expose and depose -- and "we are playing only the first two roles to the best of our ability," Jogi said.

In another significant development, the party turned down Chief Election Commissioner Dr M S Gill's suggestion that chief ministers of the four states going to polls in November should resign to enable a neutral administration under the governor to be in place for a free and fair election. The advice amounted to changing the basic structure of the Constitution and "this suggestion should not be encouraged and welcomed," Jogi said.

Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan are going to the polls; the Congress is in power in MP and Mizoram.

On the CEC's suggestion for an amendment to Article 356 to enable an elected state government to move out of office once elections are announced, Jogi remarked, ''We do not support and endorse such a suggestion as we have a firm faith in democracy and our democratic institutions,'' and it was not in the larger interests of the nation.

UNI

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