PATNA, February 5: For the first time ever BJP's prime ministerial candidate Atal Behari Vajpayee admitted today that the poll prospect of the Congress has improved with Sonia Gandhi's political plunge.``The Congress will slightly gain with Sonia Gandhi campaigning for it, but it will miserably fail to capitalise on the benefit,'' Vajpayee told mediapersons. However, he asserted that the BJP along with its allies would get a clear mandate to form a stable Government. The Congress would emerge as the principal adversary, he said.
Referring to the election manifesto of the Congress, wherein it has been alleged that the party (the congress) had to withdraw support to the United Front (UF) Government in April last year as the latter had ``used Government machineries to engineer defection in the Congress,'' Vajpayee said the Congress and the Front should come forward with clarifications.
``The allegation is very serious and the Congress should come out with concrete supporting evidence to prove the chargeand UF should also clarify its position,'' he said.
Vajpayee took serious exception to, what he described as the ``callous silence'' of the UF leaders on the matter. He was also critical of Prime Minister IK Gujral, and charged him with misleading him (Vajpayee) about the filing of cases against two officials in Bofors scandal. He said the country was entitled to know why Bofors investigation had taken so long.
Vajpayee expressed serious apprehensions about the possibility of holding a free and fair election in Bihar. He said the situation in State was so bad that even the central observer had to be airlifted from the home district of former Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav for fear of being killed. He urged the Chief Election Commission to look into the matter and initiate the necessary measures.
Vajpayee also clarified that there was no dissension among its allies on the issue of a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and added that this would be finalised after the elections. Difference of opinion wouldnot be a deterrent in evolving the CMP he said, since ``our alliance has not been worked out in a room, instead it is a pre-election alliance formed in an open field''.
Expressing the ``resolve'' of his party to weed out corruption in high places, Vajpayee said the BJP-led coalition Government would make the country ``corruption-free'' and keep the investigating agencies free from ``any external interference''.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
