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Deve Gowda asks Congress to form the government

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda today called upon the Congress to form an alternative government at the Centre under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi.

The continuance of the present government posed a threat to the unity and integrity of the country, he told a news conference in New Delhi.

Deve Gowda released a copy of his letter to Prime Minister A B Vajpayee taking strong exception to the ''Bharatiya Janata Party leaders building up a tempo in favour of construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya.'' The BJP's ''secular allies'' should revolt against the violation of the spirit of the national agenda.

He recalled that the BJP had given a solemn commitment to keep off contentious issues from the government's purview.

The former prime minister welcomed the formation of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav, but ruled out the possibility of the Janata Dal forming a part of it. In any case, the objectives of the Morcha and the Janata Dal remained the same, fighting the communal forces represented by the BJP.

UNI

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