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ELECTIONS '96

Independents' action may lead to fresh elections in Maharashtra

Former Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar said the Congress would seek fresh assembly elections in the state in case the independent legislators withdrew support to the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government.

Replying to a question on the reported dissidence among the independent legislators against the alliance government, Pawar said, "Some independent legislators did meet us, but we will not allow defection. We prefer fresh elections."

During his recent electioneering meetings, Pawar was quoted as having said that the Sena-BJP government would topple after the Lok Sabha election. When his attention was drawn to the Congress election campaign committee in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad's statement that the alliance government would be dismissed if the Congress came to power at the Centre, Pawar said, "Our immediate goal is to win the maximum of Lok Sabha seats and form the government at the Centre."

He added that if his party come to power at the Centre, it would seriously look at the decision taken by the Morarji Desai government in 1977 to dismiss those state governments where the ruling parties had secured less than 50 per cent votes in the parliamentary election held after the Emergency.

Pawar said BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani were part of the Morarji Desai-led Janata Party government which dismissed governments in eight states, including the one in Maharashtra, applying this criterion. This decision was taken on the basis of a proposal made by Advani and Vajpayee, then cabinet ministers.

Both Vajpayee and Advani had then contended that all such state governments where ruling parties had polled less than 50 per cent votes should be considered to have lost the mandate of the people and "dismissed", Pawar pointed out.

Replying to another question, Pawar said there would be no impact of the Uttar Pradesh developments on the Congress's poll prospects. "Everyone knows how the BJP indulged in horse trading and engineered defections to come to power. As a result, the people will not make the mistake of electing BJP to power at the Centre."

Pawar, however, declined to comment on the Allahabad high court decision reinstating the Kalyan Singh government which was dismissed on Saturday by governor Romesh Bhandari after the supporting parties withdrew their support. He said he would need to study the exact powers the governor and the courts enjoyed under the Constitution.

The Congress strongman and former defence minister reiterated his party's demand that the Srikrishna commission report on the 1992 riots and March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts in Bombay should be made public immediately. The public had a right to know the identity of the communal forces behind these heinous crimes.

Pawar said there was widespread public ire against the ''misrule'' of the Sena-BJP government because of the ''rampant misuse'' of power which had caused untold misery and suffering to the people. ''The people are being tormented and terrorised by the government's abuse of its money, muscle power and administrative powers, and its neglect of development schemes. Money is being extorted even from government officials'', he charged.

He said that, during his criss-cross tour of the state for electioneering, people reacted strongly everywhere against the alliance government. During his tour of more than 150 assembly constituencies, Pawar claims to have seen massive voters' response to the Congress-RPI-Samajwadi party alliance candidates. He said the poor people and the common man, who were briefly alienated from the Congress after it lost its link with the Nehru-Gandhi family, had come back to the party fold.

Among the four factors leading to what he claimed was a swing towards the Congress was the unity in the party, the renewed enthusiasm among party supporters following Sonia Gandhi campaigns, the people's anger against the state government's misrule and the latter's failure to prove the personal allegations made by its leaders against then Congress ministers during 1995 assembly election.

As a result, Pawar said the Congress was all poised to get a big lead over the Sena-BJP alliance. The Congress would not only get overwhelming majority in the state, but the alliance's tally would reduce sharply, he said. His party's position would also improve considerably in Bombay, where it failed to open its account during the last Lok Sabha election.

The Congress allies, the RPI and the Samajwadi Party, would also do better, he added (the Congress is contesting three seats on its own while leaving two seats to the Samajwadi Party and one to the RPI). He said the Congress-RPI-Samajwadi Party combined candidate's position had tremendously improved wherever Sonia Gandhi had addressed campaign rallies. If not an absolute majority, the Congress will definitely get near majority in Lok Sabha, he said.

UNI Elections '98

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