BJP to seek support from regional parties after being asked to form government

THE Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was asked by the Indian President yesterday to form the next government, following an unclear verdict in the general elections.

President Shankar Dayal Sharma invited Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, parliamentary leader of the BJP, to be India's next prime minister.

He gave Mr Vajpayee, whose party won the largest number of seats in the parliamentary elections, until May 31st to prove that the BJP can form a majority in parliament.

"The President has invited me to become the prime minister, and my cabinet will be sworn in tomorrow", Mr Vajpayee said yesterday after a meeting at the president's palace which ended a week of uncertainty after no party won a majority in the elections.

"I have accepted with gratitude," he said.

Mr Vajpayee succeeds Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao, whose Congress I party suffered its worst ever defeat in elections. But the BJP's continuance in office is far from assured and its troubles might just be beginning.

The BJP and its allies are 83 MPs short of a majority and because of its sectarian and anti Muslim policies in ethnically diverse India, it faces difficulty in finding coalition partners to win the vote of confidence in parliament.

The BJP'S hopes of parties appear faint following the Congress party's decision to support a centre left government headed by Mr H.D. Deve Gowda, chief minister of the southern state of Karnataka.

Besides the Congress party's 136 seats, Mr Gowda's National Front, with 111 MPs, already claims the support of several south Indian and regional parties and independents which are also being wooed by the BJP.

BJP leaders yesterday admitted their only hope for survival was that as prime minister for two weeks, Mr Vajpayee might win over regional party MPs by offering them high office and assurances of legislation favouring their areas of influence.

The BJP, with 45 MPs, also faces problems in the 245 member Rajya Sabha (upper house) as it would be in no position to legislate without relying on other mainly hostile parties, determined to oppose the Hindu nationalists.

For the moment, however, the BJP can count on eight MPs from the Akali Dal party of the Sikhs in Punjab state in the north and three others belonging to a local party in neighbouring Haryana state.

The BJP, meanwhile, in an effort to win regional support has toned down its Hindu jingoism and is distancing itself from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a neo fascist Hindu revivalist movement begun over 60 years ago and from which the BJP evolved.

However, the RSS, with its paramilitary youth wings and disciplined cadres, remains the guiding spirit of the BJP, committed to perpetuating Hindutva or Hindu hegemony and pursuing an anti Muslim stance.