NEW DELHI, Nov 23: As the seven-month old Gujral government teetered on the brink, the stage appeared set for the prime minister to recommend dissolution of parliament any time now.

An indication to this effect was available here on Sunday after the two Left parties -- CPI(M) and CPI -- formally asked Gujral to go for dissolution of the Lok Sabha followed by a snap poll.

Significantly, senior Marxist leader and West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu met President KR Narayanan at Rashtrapati Bhavan and discussed the political situation for half an hour after the two Left parties stated their position.

A high drama was in store for parliament when it resumes on Monday with the Congress party deciding not to allow debate on the Jain commission till the DMK ministers were removed and the UF hellbent to take on the Congress on the floor of both houses.

Even though Congress president was still waiting till late Sunday evening for a formal communication from Gujral on his party's ultimatum for DMK's ouster, the party's parliamentary wing held a two-hour long discussion earlier in the day to chalk out its floor strategy.

In the absence of the formal communication, the much-awaited Congress working committee was yet to meet and take the final view. Party sources indicated that the CWC could meet anytime at short notice, if necessary.Indications, however, were that the top leadership of the Congress was against any formal approval for withdrawal tonight in order to pre-empt possible nocturnal horse trading by the Opposition BJP which was, anyway, waiting in the wings to strike.

That the intentions of the BJP were suspect became clear from the statements made by leaders like UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi, both of whom justified a UP-like operation at the Centre. Kalyan Singh told journalists in Lucknow on Sunday that his party saw nothing wrong in experimenting the UP example in Delhi as well.

Although the UF camp was quiet as regards the delay in despatching the crucial letter to Kesri, Front insiders said it was part of a strategy under which it wanted to give maximum time to the Congress to re-consider its stand under pressure from its own party MPs majority of whom were not in favour of facing a mid-term poll.

Indeed, definite feelers were sent to all political parties by none other than speaker PA Sangma who mooted the idea of a "national government" to help tide over the present political crisis at the centre. Speaking at Jaipur on Sunday Sangma said a national government consisting of all political parties could be the ideal solution as no political party was ready to face a mid-term poll.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.