May 10, 1999
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NATIONAL POLITICS The Fall and After... Why was Vajpayee not invited again?
It didn't quite work out that way. Vajpayee was at the receiving end of a virtual monologue, the upshot of which was dissolution of the Lok Sabha. An appropriate cabinet resolution was requested and promised. When Vajpayee returned to the Coordination Committee meeting at Race Course Road, the reaction was one of stunned silence. Yerran Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party and Mamata Banerjee were particularly piqued since fresh elections were the last thing they wanted. Others, including Kumaramangalam and Ram Jethmalani, pressed for more time to bring in the numbers, but Vajpayee and Advani weren't enthusiastic. "Bring us at least 10 MPs and we'll consider," they were told. The truth is that both leaders had switched to election mode. Was the President unfair? Not really. A day before he indicated to Jaswant Singh, Murasoli Maran and Vaiko his willingness to include the BJP coalition in the "consultation process" if they showed an "accretion". That wasn't forthcoming. Nor was Vajpayee in a mood to press his claim since he had gauged the pitfalls of operating with a wafer-thin margin. Of course, there was a way out. If the President had asked, "Are you in a position to face a confidence vote?" Vajpayee would have said yes. But the President did not ask and Vajpayee didn't press the point. It's not that the BJP didn't seriously try for last-minute extra support. The Janata Dal was actively wooed and for a time it seemed that three MPs, including Ram Vilas Paswan, would split. At the last minute, however, Paswan proved elusive and a Karnataka MP missed a flight waiting for Shatrughan Sinha. Buta Singh too was willing but with the price tag of a cabinet berth. As was the TMC after its Sonia option was exhausted. Its price was even heavier: a national government minus Advani and Fernandes. Says Jaya Jaitley of the Samata Party: "People were coming in ones and twos but we didn't want six Jayalalithas after getting rid of one." Before the cabinet met at noon on April 26, there were demands from the TDP and the Trinamool Congress to ask the President for an extra day's time. The Speaker was alerted and a gathering of first-term MPs tried in vain to call on Narayanan. Vajpayee was disinclined. "The President hasn't given us an option," he told the cabinet, even as his aides were whispering to nervous MPs that more time meant giving the other side an opportunity to smuggle in Sonia through the backdoor. Violating a presidential order would be a fit case for swearing in a more obliging care-taker government. In the end, the cabinet did what the President and Vajpayee wanted. The final 90 minutes were taken up with the precise wording of a resolution that pinned the responsibility of dissolution on Narayanan's decision. Rashtrapati Bhavan wasn't happy but by then no one really cared. Why did the BJP-led
government lose? |
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On April 25, even as Sonia was finally admitting failure to the
President, the BJP was observing a "Betrayal Day" rally at Delhi's Ferozeshah
Kotla. It was another of those solidarity shows the leaders daily insisted on to keep
spirits high and the coalition intact. Thundering speeches apart, the high point of
excitement was the announcement that Narayanan had invited Vajpayee for talks. For the
faithful, this meant one thing: another shy at government. 
