The Hindu : Congress `willing' to support Jethmalani against Vajpayee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

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Congress `willing' to support Jethmalani against Vajpayee

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 27. The Congress today announced that it would "like'' to support the former Union Minister, Ram Jethmalani, as a "common candidate'' of the Opposition parties against the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in Lucknow.

Announcing this here today, the senior Congress leader, Pranab Mukherjee, said it was for Mr. Jethmalani to ensure the support of other non-NDA political parties.

Asked whether the Congress would issue an appeal to other like-minded political parties to support Mr. Jethmalani's candidature, Mr. Mukherjee was non-committal, maintaining that it was for the former Union Minister to ensure the support of others. "Mr. Jethmalani is an independent candidate, so it is for him to ensure the support of other parties.''

Earlier, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had made it clear that it was in favour of fielding common Opposition candidates against some "leading lights'' of the NDA, including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi.

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