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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
PUNE, Sept 8: Senior Congress leader Shankarrao Chavan today indicated that the Congress was banking on support from the Left Front to form a government at the Centre.
Speaking to reporters here, Chavan claimed that the Congress would form governments both at the Centre and in Maharashtra. He said the party would bag about 255 Lok Sabha seats this time. According to his estimate, Maharashtra alone would send 38-40 members to the Lok Sabha.
Claiming that the Congress would get a clear majority in the Maharashtra Assembly, Chavan said he was very confident that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar would not have any impact on the performance of the Congress in the State and outside.
According to Chavan, the NCP was likely to eat into Shiv Sena votes. He ruled out any possibility of an alliance with the NCP and explained that the NCP had time and again indicated that the party would only form an alliance with the Congress minus Sonia Gandhi.
Referring to issues before the nation, he expressed apprehension that the Government would soon have to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) bowing to pressure from the Clinton administration in the wake of the Kargil issue.
He expressed doubts on whether the Government had already signed on the dotted line. He declined to comment on the Congress view, saying that this was a purely hypothetical question.
Chavan alleged that a number of problems had come to the fore after the Lahore declaration and the Pokhran II tests following which the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan spread its network in India.
He said he believed that the Government had refused to convene a special session of the Rajya Sabha on the Kargil issue to hide a number of discrepancies. Even Vajpayee admitted to have been taken by surprise by the infiltrators after the Lahore declaration, he said.
He accused Defence Minister George Fernandes of lying to the nation.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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