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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee may have pulled off a coup of sorts by extracting a commitment from Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar to support the government in case there's a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha.
Confirming that Pawar had met Vajpayee recently, a senior government official told rediff.com that the prime minister and the NCP chief had discussed the situation arising out of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul Congress leaving the ruling National Democratic Alliance.
He hinted that a quid pro quo had been worked out between Vajpayee and Pawar whereby the NCP's seven members in the Lok Sabha would support the government in case a vote of confidence was taken.
In return, senior NCP leader and former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma would get the railway minister, which is being looked after by Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar.
There was, however, no independent confirmation of this political deal. NCP general secretary Tariq Anwar professed ignorance about it. "I am not aware of this development," he remarked. Sangma was not available for comment.
Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra too said he was unaware of any such deal. "Of course, the Vajpayee government's stability will not be affected by this slanderous opposition campaign to pull it down. We are going to the people to apprise them of the opposition's attempt to grab power by hook or crook," Malhotra said.
Referring to the Congress demand that the government resign following the corruption uncovered by tehelka.com, Malhotra pointed to the inquiry against Congress president Sonia Gandhi's personal secretary Vincent George for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income while a public servant from 1984 to 1990.
"The Congress members should now ask for Sonia Gandhi's resignation since her personal assistant has been exposed by the CBI," he remarked.
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