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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
HYDERABAD, APRIL 24: In view of the complex political scenario in Delhi in which no combination is able to secure a majority, AP Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday night suggested holding election for the prime minister's post on the floor of the House.
According to Naidu's proposal, which was conveyed to President KR Narayanan, any number of candidates could contest for the post. ``Whoever gets the most votes will become the prime minister. He need not necessarily enjoy the support of 272 members. The contestant can even be a non-member,'' Naidu said.
The Telugu Desam leader said that his proposal would help overcome the numbers game and avoid mid-term polls. ``The President told me that he would think it over,'' Naidu told mediapersons at a press conference at his residence here late on Friday night after a meeting of politburo and parliamentary party. The TDP chief has conveyed the proposal to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and leaders of other political partiestoo.
``There is no guarantee that any single party would get absolute majority even if elections are held. This is the era of coalition governments and the same problems would crop up again,'' he felt and asserted that the TDP was not afraid of mid-term polls.
Asked whether the suggestion made by him enjoyed Constitutional validity, Naidu said changes could always be made. The President has to initiate political reforms in tune with the changing circumstances. Queried whether the TDP would support Vajpayee if he would be the BJP's candidate for prime minister's post, the Chief Minister said that TDP would stick to the stand it had adopted on the confidence motion. ``I don't think there is a need for me to go to Delhi,'' he said when asked if he was going to the capital in view of the political crisis at Centre. Leaders of several political parties were in touch with him, Naidu said, but refused to divulge details.
Meanwhile, TDP sources said that with the chances of the Congress forming a minoritygovernment at the Centre receding, Naidu is making efforts to prop up the Third Front as an alternative to both the Congress and the BJP.
He had been working in this direction since the fall of the Vajpayee Government but the efforts gained momentum only today with Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party making it clear he would not back the Congress.
Naidu held discussions with national leaders of various political parties including Mulayam Singh, Samata Party leader George Fernandes, Ram Vilas Paswan of the Janata Dal and DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
Naidu is understood to have told them that efforts should be made to facilitate formation of government by the Third Front now that both the BJP and the Congress have failed to gather the required numbers. Though the TDP had been maintaining that the ``status quo'' remains on its issue-based support to the BJP, the Telugu Desam leader is understood to have told them that his party would back a government led by a non-Congress party.
Former Union ministerRenuka Chowdhary's letter to TDP MPs suggesting that they back the Congress also came up for discussion. In her letter, which was released to the press, Chowdhary said that the TDP should support the Congress in the ``national interest'' and because the United Front (of which Telugu Desam was a part) had at one time enjoyed the backing of the Congress.
However, TDP leaders present at the meeting felt that they need not take cognisance of the opinion expressed by Chowdhary as she is expected to join the Congress anytime.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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