NEW DELHI, June 1: Governors and leaders of political parties are meeting President Shanker Dayal Sharma tomorrow and the day after to discuss ways of dealing with situations when elections fail to throw up a clear mandate.

The meeting convened at the initiative of the President, whose term in office is in its last stages, is unlikely to yield anything concrete but will herald the beginning of some serious thinking on the key role of governors in situations akin to the one that was witnessed after the 1996 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Political parties did not seem overly enthused over the exercise on the eve of the meeting. ``We do not know what the President has in mind. We will have to first listen to what he says.

But it would have been better if separate discussions had been held with the governors and the political leaders,'' said BJP spokesman Yeshwant Sinha.Sinha felt that in the absence of any indication that serious groundwork had been done before the meeting, it would have been ideal if the President had discussed the issue first with the government of the day, eminent jurists and then with the governors. ``If it had been done in stages, adequate public opinion would have emerged,'' he said. The CPI (M) representative for the discussions, Prakash Karat, said the party had clear views on the subject but it would react only after the President made his remarks. ``We still don't know what the official viewpoint is,'' he said.

But Sinha said that the BJP's view was that in the absence of a clear majority, the governors should follow the precedents set by the President at the Centre over the years.

The precedent by and large had been that the single largest party was called to form the government unless a pre-election formation of two or more parties was able to muster more support.

The more important thing, however, was to ensure that governors were less influenced by partisan political considerations. Especially because governors who were often political appointees had acted in the interest of the political party in power at the Centre, he said.

Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President K R Narayanan, Prime Minister IK Gujral and Home Minister Indrajit Gupta will also attend the meeting. The Janata Dal will be represented by its president Laloo Prasad Yadav and Congress by its chief Sitaram Kesri.

In the absence of BJP president L K Advani, who is touring the country, his deputy Sunder Singh Bhandari will participate in the meeting. The Telugu Desam will be represented by its chief Chandrababu Naidu and the CPI by its general secretary, A B Bardhan.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.