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Coalition strategies take shape in India
March 4, 1998
Web posted at: 5:25 a.m. EST (1025 GMT)NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- With no single party receiving a majority in parliamentary elections, India's three major contenders held strategy sessions Wednesday to try to find ways of forming a coalition government.
All but a handful of seats for the 545-member lower house of parliament have been decided, but no party won the 273 seats needed to govern alone.
"The nation would seem in for an extended phase of unstable governance," The Hindu newspaper said in an editorial titled "An Indecisive Verdict."
According to tallies early Wednesday, the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies had won 251 seats; Congress Party and its allies, 166; the United Front, 96; and independents and others who could be drawn into one bloc or the other, 21.
Of the remaining 11 seats, one was to be announced later Wednesday. Press Trust of India said the count for one constituency in the eastern state of Bihar was withheld because of "certain irregularities" and would resume after a re-poll at two voting stations.
Counting of votes from two constituencies in the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir starts on March 9 and the six remaining constituencies at stake will have completed voting by June 21. The two other seats in the lower house of parliament will be filled by presidential nominees.
The next government needs to have a majority of 272 seats in the lower house.
Major parties brainstorm on possible coalition alliances
By law, President K.R. Narayanan will decide which party -- usually the one with the most seats -- should be given a chance to govern. Once the party's leader is sworn in as prime minister, its claim will be tested in a vote of confidence.
Narayanan was expected to consult in the coming days with parties claiming they could form a government. All major parties scheduled strategy sessions Wednesday.
The Congress and the United Front, both opposed to the BJP, have said they would join forces in a coalition, but they would still need 11 more seats to form a majority.
"We will try to get the support of UF and the others," Congress spokesman Ghulam Nabi Azad said after a meeting of the party's working committee today. "I hope the United Front is united."
The BJP may try to draw parties away from the United Front, a coalition of 14 groups.
Last month's elections were held three years ahead of schedule after the Congress Party pulled down a government led by United Front. But the two, fearing the Hindu nationalist rhetoric of the BJP in this diverse country of some 950 million people, were trying to come together again.
This time, the parties have agreed to reverse roles, allowing the Congress Party to head the coalition.
The BJP is wary of repeating the fiasco of 1996, when it formed a government but failed to muster a majority in parliament. The government collapsed in less than two weeks.
K.L. Sharma, vice president of the BJP, said the decision on whether to stake a claim to form a government would be made Friday. "Let the Congress and the UF decide what they are up to, then we will see," he said.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Power struggle looms after Indian election - March 3, 1998
- First exit polls in India put BJP in lead - February 28, 1998
- India's Hindu nationalists win local confidence vote - February 26, 1998
Related sites:
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- Bharatiya Janata Party,India
- Press Trust of India
- Indian Politics: The Economic Times
- Hindustan Times
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
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