The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : No change in our stand on coalition, says BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 03, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

No change in our stand on coalition, says BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MAY 2. H. Raja, general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Saturday denied that the party had redefined its strategy on government formation at the Centre in view of exit poll predictions of a hung Parliament.

Referring to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president, M. Karunanidhi's claim that the exit polls had created ripples in the BJP, evident from its plea now for a `vote for a stable government,' Mr. Raja said the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had from the beginning been saying the party stood for a coalition even if it got a majority on its own.

The BJP would not demand a ban on opinion and exit polls, but it favoured fixing of norms on publicising the results. "The results should carry some sort of statutory warning that they are based on the agencies' assessment of the situation and they need not be the real outcome of the elections", he said. The stock market suffered huge losses in a knee-jerk reaction to the exit polls conducted during the previous phase of the Lok Sabha poll, he pointed out.

Mr. Raja said the Election Commission's ban on screening Doordarshan films starring actors who had entered the election fray would not serve any purpose. For, private channels had been telecasting these films. Moreover, screening of old films featuring these actors would not have any impact on the poll, he said.

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