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Swamy says non-BJP government likely at Centre

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy today claimed that an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre was being readied.

Addressing the media in Madras, he said a new prime minister would unfurl the national flag at the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15.

He discounted the speculation that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was not ready for an alternative government at the Centre. Sonia might be considering the timing, but he did not think that she was not for toppling the Vajpayee government, he added.

Dr Swamy declined to give the arithmetic of an alternative line-up but offered to share the information privately.

To another question, he said AIADMK general secretary and former chief minister J Jayalalitha would have no option but to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government, which, Dr Swamy said, would not concede her main demand of dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu.

He claimed that the Vajpayee government would not dismiss the DMK government since ''Chief Minister M Karunanidhi enjoys the backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad''.

He alleged that the RSS was planning to make Union Home Minister L K Advani acting prime minister when Vajpayee goes to the United Nations in September (if Vajpayee remained prime minister then). The RSS organ Panchajanya bore testimony to his claim, he added.

The RSS was also planning a mid-term poll in February next year under Advani's prime ministership, he claimed.

UNI

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