Addressing a press conference, party president George Fernandes hailed as "patriotic" the role of SP, SJP, RSP and the Forward Bloc in opposing the formation of a Congress government and criticised the CPI (M) for "trying to foist a person of foreign origin" on the country as prime minister.

On whether the Samata Party would enter into an electoral alliance with the SP and SJP, he said, "We are ready for it if Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chandra Shekhar want (it)".

The Defence Minister said while it was the business of the Congress to choose its president, "the country was horrified to see its attempts, aided and abetted by the general secretary of the CPI (M), to foist an inexperienced and foreign-born person as prime minister on the people of India."

He said it was "furthering not just the dynastic ambitions of one family,but also all those forces who wish India to be seen as weak and enslaved once more."

Fernandes said mid-term polls would cost the country over Rs 1,000 crore "due to the instability created by Opposition parties in league with the AIADMK", and added, "The cynical crushing of people's mandate for a coalition government under Atal Behari Vajpayee was sought to be justified as the need of the hour and first priority for the sake of secularism. The people of India do not need conspirators, intriguers and agents of foreign powers to be self-appointed guardians of secularism. All communities in India, including the minorities, will surely reject those who, in the name of upholding secularism, have sought to destabilise and weaken the country."

Fernandes said it was typical of the Congress and the Left parties ``that they should be determined to bring down the government when the whole world had acknowledged that it was governing well.''

He said the Samata Party had repeatedly warned the people ofinternational interests, who ``disproportionately highlighted'' the tensions between Christians and non-Christians in tribal communities. "The ugly attempt at dubbing this coalition as a `communal force' only reveals the desperation of the Opposition in wanting to keep communal tensions alive'', he said.

He accused the Congress of trying to protect the killers of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two sons.

Fernandes said a party delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill to demand elections by June-end or early July, saying September would not be favourable for elections because of the monsoons, floods and cyclone that disrupted life and surface transport in several parts of the country.

Moreover, if a government functioned as caretaker for six months, development would take a back seat, he explained.

Describing the major administrative reshuffle in Bihar as "surreptitious", Fernandes also complained to Gill that the exercise had been done keeping the elections in mindand suit the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal in the State.