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NDA made a bid to topple UPA government in 2007

Special Correspondent

Jaswant discloses proposal to install UNPA-led coalition

NDA deputed Jaswant to meet UNPA leaders to elicit their support for Shekhawat
With Shiv Sena breaking ranks, NDA failed to get on its side even its own allies

NEW DELHI: In the run-up to the Presidential contest in July 2007, Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance had hoped to topple the Manmohan Singh government to install a government led by the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) supported from outside by the NDA, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh confirmed here on Saturday.

Responding to questions from reporters at a press conference addressed by him jointly with the Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, Mr. Singh said he was “authorised and deputed by the NDA” to meet UNPA leaders to elicit their support for the NDA-backed Presidential candidate, then Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

“I met [AIADMK chief] Jayalalithaa at the Maurya Sheraton Hotel [in Delhi] and conveyed to her the BJP-led NDA would offer outside support to a government led by the UNPA with any Prime Ministerial candidate of the UNPA’s choice.” He added that he individually met other UNPA leaders as well.

He suggested the BJP was ready to do this deal with the UNPA in return for the favour of its vote for Mr. Shekhawat. The BJP, party sources disclosed, expected the Manmohan Singh government to fall if it was unable to get the United Progressive Alliance and Left-supported Presidential candidate Pratibha Patil elected to the highest office.

In the event, however, the NDA failed to get on its side even its own allies, for the Shiv Sena broke ranks with its MPs and MLAs voting for Ms. Patil.

Mr. Jaswant Singh said Ms. Jayalalithaa – at that time her party was part of the UNPA — told him that she would discuss the offer with her colleagues in the UNPA and get back to him. “I had told her then if you have a Prime Ministerial candidate, whoever is your candidate, we will give outside support.”

Just minutes earlier, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Advani had talked about the Manmohan Singh government having lost all moral authority and credibility as a result of the “unprincipled deals” it had made with the Samajwadi Party [till Friday a prominent member of the UNPA] resulting in “yesterday’s adversaries” – the Congress and the SP — becoming “today’s allies.”

‘Offer was for Mulayam’

Political observers said the open offer to the UNPA — to have a Prime Minister of its choice – was in fact an offer to Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh, whose party was the only one in the UNPA to have a substantial number of MPs.

The AIADMK and the Indian National Lok Dal of Om Prakash Chautala have no Lok Sabha MPs, the Asom Gana Parishad has 2, the Telugu Desam Party at that time had 4 and the National Conference 2. The SP alone had a double-digit figure of 38.

SP leader Amar Singh recently claimed that the BJP had offered to support Mr. Mulayam Singh for the Prime Minister’s job, a claim that the BJP rubbished as a “day dream” and a “figment of Amar Singh’s wild imagination.”

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