Toppling DF Govt impossible at this stage, says Mahajan

Toppling DF Govt impossible at this stage, says Mahajan
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NAGPUR, DEC 12: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pramod Mahajan has said that it is impossible to topple the Congress-NCP coalition Government and form a Sena-BJP Government in Maharashtra keeping the present political scenario in mind.

Talking to mediapersons in a `Meet the Press' progamme sponsored by the Nagpur Union of Working Journalists (NUWJ) here on Saturday, Mahajan said that such a situation would be possible only if the saffron combine succeeded in splitting either the Congress or the NCP.

On Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray's recent prediction that the present Congress-NCP Government would collapse by this month and the Sena-BJP combine would again form a government, he quipped, ``I wish his prediction is proved to be correct.'' Answering a question, Mahajan denied the knowledge of support of 145 MLAs to the Sena-BJP combine before the formation of the Congress-NCP Government. ``My information was that the support had not crossed 134-136 MLAsand hence we failed to form our government in the State,'' he further said. To a query, he denied that the BJP tried to form a government with the help of NCP in the State. ``Neither have we approached NCP for its support to form a government nor did the NCP approach us with a formal or informal proposal for it,'' he said.

Replying to a question, he denied that the offer of resignations by Union Home Minister L K Advani, Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Murli Manohar Joshi and Minister of State for Tourism Uma Bharati on the issue of Babri mosque demolition, was part of the drama planned at the PMO.

The entire Opposition, particularly the Congress members in the Lok Sabha, had targeted the three ministers for being chargesheeted in the demolition case. ``It was a spontaneous reaction by Advani, Joshi and Uma Bharati in the wake of the Opposition's uproar in Lok Sabha on the issue last week,'' Mahajan said. Question of resignation of these ministers does not arise as there was no allegationsof corruption or misuse of office against them, he further pointed out.