The BJP is seeing the possibility of an early election, after the DMK pulled out of the UPA. The main Opposition party said it was ready to face any electoral challenge that may be necessitated after Tuesday’s development.
With fresh trouble staring the dispensation in its face, the BJP also dismissed the Manmohan Singh regime as a ‘lame duck’ Government that should “immediately go, in the interest of the nation”.
Former BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu said the DMK’s withdrawal has vindicated the BJP’s stand that “all is not well” within the UPA. “Three Ministers went on a political pilgrimage to Chennai to discuss the Sri lankan issue with the DMK chief. They did not even bother to consult the elected Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa. Congress is treating the Sri lankan issue as an internal matter of the UPA,” Naidu alleged.
The Rajya Sabha MP added, “Nobody will shed tears if this Government goes. UPA has become a Divided Progressive Alliance (DPA) and Non-Performing Alliance (NPA). This coalition has lost the trust of the common man and that of its allies. It has no right to remain in power. Either you (the Congress) govern, or just get out.”
Naidu alleged that ‘acting in haste and repenting later’ has become the habit of the UPA. “Be it the FDI decision, anti-rape Bill or, in the latest case, the Sri lankan Tamil controversy; Congress hardly took the Opposition or its partners into confidence,” Naidu said.
The leader was also critical of UPA’s outside supporters — the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party — for ‘talk out in the morning, walkout in the afternoon and bailout in the evening’.
“Please understand, you will be held equally responsible for the misdeeds of the UPA Government,” he
cautioned parties supporting
the Congress.
BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said his party was ready for the general elections as continuation of the Government is not in the interests of the country. “The Government does not have a majority now. It should go,” he told reporters outside Parliament, after DMK’s decision on withdrawing support from the Government on the lankan Tamils issue.
Asked whether BJP is ready to face the electorate, he said, “We are always ready to face the elections.”
Naqvi added, “The Government is on the ventilator. But if it manages to run after somehow getting support from here and there, then it will not be in the interests of the country.”
Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha sought to know from the DMK inside the lok Sabha “whether the Government is in majority in this House”. He said, “My appeal to the DMK is do not run with the hare and hunt with the hound.”