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Vajpayee will lead BJP allies, says Fernandes

Samata Party president and Defence Minister George Fernandes today said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would lead the election campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies, who would go to the people with the National Agenda for Governance with suitable changes.

Answering a question at a news conference, he said it would be the job of the allies to "persuade" Vajpayee to lead the alliance and its campaign.

He said the Samata Party's view is that the allies should go to the people collectively endorsing the agenda and bringing in changes if necessary.

Asked if the alliance would accept the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav in the pre-electoral alliance as a partner, Fernandes said, "If he wants we will certainly consider it."

He said the country was horrified by the attempts of CPI-M general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet to "foist an inexperienced, foreign-born person" as prime minister on the people of India. The Samata Party would like to publicly acknowledge the patriotic role played by the Samajwadi Party, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Forward Bloc and Samajwadi Janata Party in rejecting the idea of allowing the Congress to humiliate the country.

Fernandes, who is also convenor of the BJP-led allied parties, said he met the chief election commissioner and urged him to complete the election process by the first week of July so that the country would have an elected government which could take decisions.

"The country and the people should not be made to suffer because of the sins of parties like the Congress and the CPI-M," he said.

His party is also of the view that the politicians and political parties that create conditions and situations leading to elections every year should bear the cost of elections. "Why should the country divert Rs10 billion, meant for development works, for elections?"

He said there were many constraints on a coalition government as it is not empowered to take any policy decisions. "What is the point in having a government which can't take decisions," he asked.

The attempt on the part of other parties to dub the coalition "communal" revealed the "desperation of those parties wanting to keep communal tensions alive", he said, adding that the Samata Party will not allow this to happen, as it is committed to ensure that all responsible for political formations with which it is allied will continue to maintain religious and social harmony.

He said the inflation rate in the country now is 4.17 per cent and the onion crisis is a forgotten issue. The Budget was passed unanimously by all parties, proving that the government had taken correct steps for economic recovery and progress.

UNI

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