BJP wants President to resolve political impasse by Monday, else...

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday reiterated its demand for immediate dissolution of Parliament and holding of early elections to end the political crisis in the country.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the leader of the Opposition, told a press conference in Delhi on Saturday that the BJP had requested President Shankar Dayal Sharma to find a solution to the present political impasse by Monday, failing which the party would not be obliged to ensure the smooth transaction of financial business during the special three day session of the Lok Sabha.

He lashed out at the Congress for what he described as its ''highly irresponsible behaviour.'' The party, he said, was demanding a change of leadership by ''pointing a pistol'' at the United Front.

The former prime minister described the Front as a ''headless body.'' "A search is on for a head," he said. "Various heads are in the race. None of them has the capability of creating a Ganesh by joining a new head on this headless body. At the most they can create a monkey, which the country will not accept.''

Vajpayee disclosed that he had told the President during their 30-minute meeting on Thursday that there was ''no constitutional or moral propriety'' in asking a government which had been defeated in Parliament to return to power minus its leader. ''It would be a mockery of democracy and a cruel joke on the people if power is again given to those who have no hesitation in sacrificing their leader simply to retain power,'' he said.

"Instability is inherent when a 14 party coalition has to depend for its survival on the support of a 15th party. This instability is increased when the support is from outside," he added.

Vajpayee wondered how a letter once addressed to the President could be withdrawn, as Congress president Sitaram Kesri had done on Friday. When he posed this question to Dr Sharma, he said the President told him an anecdote. Once the Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh assembly had staged a walk out on some flimsy grounds. When it was pointed out to them that the Treasury benches wanted them to withdraw their walkout, the Opposition obliged.

If the Congress wanted a change in the UF leadership, Vajpayee felt it could have discussed this issue with the Front. The selection of March 30 by the Congress to withdraw support to the Front, he said, remained a mystery.

Outside support -- the method used by the Congress to prop up the governments of Charan Singh, Chandra Shekhar and H D Deve Gowda -- he said had failed in the past. "It will fail now and is going to fail in the future also,'' he said.

A prime minister, Vajpayee felt, should be elected openly, and not selected like a chairman of a company by a board of directors sitting in air conditioned rooms.