BJP gears up for mid-term poll

Presuming that the I K Gujral-led United Front government will be short-lived due to internal indifferences within the Front, the Bharatiya Janata Party has begun preparations for mid-term election.

BJP president Lal Kishinchand Advani has convened a meeting of party general secretaries on April 26 to finalise the action plan for the election. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will also attend the meeting.

BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said the statements of some of the UF constituents indicated that they lacked confidence in the coalition. In this regard, she quoted CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet's statement that elections were inevitable.

Swaraj said this was a ''veiled threat'' asking Gujral to either allow the Left parties to run the government or face an election. Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav said on Wednesday that if the government did not run in the direction desired by the Janata Dal, ''we will change its engine'', she added.

The BJP leader said there was competition among the UF constituents to influence the government rather than co-operate with it. In fact Surjeet is against the formation of a UF coordination committee as it would take away his sway over the functioning of the government, she alleged.

UNI