NEW DELHI - Indian parties pressed competing claims to rule the world's biggest democracy after the Prime Minister, Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao (74), resigned yesterday following his Congress Party's general election defeat. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Front Left Front demanded the right to form the next government.
Meanwhile, the government has been so busy organising the elections that it failed to set condom prices, leaving millions without contraception. A family welfare expert said yesterday: "Whatever else the elections may have cost us, they have meant eight million more babies and the further spread of sexually transmitted diseases."