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President can invite Vajpayee again, say constitutional experts

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay

President K R Narayanan can invite the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition a second time to form the government if the Congress or any other party fails to provide an alternative to overcome the current political impasse, some constitutional experts have said.

Senior Supreme Court advocate Kamini Jaiswal told Rediff On The NeT, "In case no party is able to form a stable government, the caretaker prime minister, A B Vajpayee, can once again muster the support of more than 272 members of Parliament and prove his majority in the House."

Jaiswal, however, said the first option for the President is to invite the second largest party, the Congress, to form the government. But then too he must ensure that they have the support of at least 272 MPs.

Agreeing with this assessment, Union Urban Development Minister Ram Jethmalani, also a senior Supreme Court advocate, said, "If the President is convinced once again that the BJP-led coalition can form the government, he can call them to do so."

Commenting on the prime minister's motion of confidence, which was defeated by one vote, Jethmalani said, "Everybody knows what the smaller parties did at the last moment to bring down the government. And till this day there is no alternative other than the BJP as nobody is coming forward to form the government. So the President can once again call Vajpayee with a letter stating the support of the requisite number of MPs."

Interestingly, there is a provision in the Constitution that once a no-confidence motion is tabled in the Lok Sabha, no other such motion can be brought forward for six months.

Clarifying on this point, Jaiswal said, "Yes, there should be a minimum gap of six months between two no-confidence motions in the House. But in the present case, this was a confidence motion tabled by the prime minister himself. So if somebody doubts the stability of the government, he can bring in a no-confidence motion."

But Kapil Sibal, a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha and a senior Supreme Court advocate, said, "At this point, the first chance to form the government will have to be given to the Congress. Only if they don't form the government can the President think of other options."

Sibal skirted the issue of whether the President can invite Vajpayee again to form the government, saying, "Let the Congress first decide whether it wants to form the government."

In 1996, after the 13-day BJP-led government had fallen, the President had invited the Congress to form the government since it was the largest party in the House. But the Congress had refused and the United Front had then staked its claim.

"The President will see all options before calling for the dissolution of Parliament. If there is an alternative other than the Congress, the President can invite them to form the government. If not, he can always call the BJP once again," suggested Jaiswal.

Arun Jaitley, a BJP member and also a constitutional expert, argued that there is no provision in the Constitution that prevents a party/alliance that has failed to prove its majority in the House from staking its claim again before a fresh round of elections to form the government.

"The President has to be convinced that the new party that will form the government will have a majority, which is looking very difficult at this juncture. After two days, no party has come forward to form the government," he pointed out.

Jaitley said the President cannot just call any party and administer its leader the oath of office and secrecy only to see that leader become the new caretaker prime minister. "So in the new context the President can call the BJP-led coalition to form the government," he said.

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