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

Karunanidhi asks UF to decide on backing Vajpayee government

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi today wanted the United Front to discuss and decide on supporting the Vajpayee government if it was threatened. He said his party would take a decision itself if the UF failed to do so.

Talking to newspersons at the Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters in Madras, after a meeting of party district secretaries, he regretted that the UF, of which the DMK was a constituent, was now "sick and dysfunctional". He would prefer the UF collectively discuss the issue, he said.

He was replying to a question whether the DMK would support the BJP-led government if the AIADMK withdrew support to it.

If the UF did not take a decision, the DMK executive and general council would take a decision on the issue, he said.

On the reported offer by the Tamil Maanila Congress of support to a Congress-led government at the Centre if the Vajpayee government falls, Karunanidhi said, "The UF's constituents are airing their respective views. This is why we want all of us to meet."

In Karur, TMC leader G K Moopanar has said his party's political affairs committee would take an "appropriate decision at an appropriate time" on the issue of support to the Congress to form an alternative government in the event of fall of the Vajpayee government.

He said the PAC would also decide on the issue of supporting Sonia Gandhi for the prime minister's post and added that he did not want elections to come too often.

Moopanar wondered whether the United Front existed now. He stated this when asked about Karunanidhi's view that the UF should decide the question of support to the BJP-led government in the event of withdrawal of support by the AIADMK.

In Jaipur, BJP general secretary K N Govindacharya has said the BJP-led government is functioning effectively and tried to shoo away its apparent differences with the AIADMK.

Addressing a press conference on the eve of the party's three-day national executive meeting, he said there was no need to read too much into the letter written by AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha to Vajpayee in a reference to the allegation that people close to the prime minister had received hefty bribes from some newspaper barons for the transfer of Enforcement Directorate chief M K Bezbaruah.

''There is also no need for speculation about the post-withdrawal scenario as long as the AIADMK continues to be with the government,'' he said, adding that he personally felt that such a situation would not arise.

On Trinamul Congress leader Mamta Banerjee's reported demand to convene a coordination committee meeting to expel Jayalalitha, he said coalition governments were run on mutual trust and the BJP, being the largest party and a responsible coalition partner, should exercise restraint and resolve differences through dialogue. The party had, however, taken note of Banerjee's suggestion, he said.

Govindacharya said Jayalalitha had not as yet substantiated her charge that the PMO had accepted bribes for Bezbaruah's transfer.

He denied that the BJP was clinging to power for power's sake and tolerating all kinds of charges from the AIADMK chief, and said the coalition government had its limitations.

The executive meeting he said would focus on the present political and economic situation. Besides, the executive would finalise an action plan for the coming assembly elections in four states -- Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram.

It would consider the report submitted by the committee set up at the last executive meeting, on better coordination between the party and the government and review the economic sanctions imposed by some countries in the wake of the Pokhran nuclear tests and steps to overcome the impact of these sanctions.

It would adopt a political resolution and an economic one to deal with the prevailing inflation, price rise and steps to contain them.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report