Sangh hardliners may ask BJP not to stake claim

MANDATE 2004/ Govt not at the cost of marginalisation of Advani: RSS

The prediction of a hung Parliament is expected to prompt the Sangh Parivar to review its strategy on the political scenario. As expected, pragmatists within the Parivar will favour making a determined move to form the government by all means.

But a section of the Rashtriya Swaymsevak Sangh, considered to be the puritan, is keen on taking moralistic posture should the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fall short of the magic figure of 272 in the Lok Sabha. It is a different matter that the RSS is not ready to buy the theory that the ruling alliance will not get the majority.

But what appears to have made puritans in the Parivar wary is the outcome of successive exit polls, which predicted a hung Lok Sabha in which the NDA will be precariously poised. "We must not opt to form the government if the NDA does not get the majority of its own," said a leader of the Sangh Parivar constituents.

BJP strategists also feel that the party will take such a position only when there is a risk of substantial dilution of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) status in the power structure.

A senior party leader said the party would never accept a scenario in which leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav would be scrambling for the deputy Prime Minister's post. The obvious implication of such a scenario is the gross marginalisation of LK Advani at the altar of pragmatic politics.

"It is better to sit in the Opposition and wait for the right time," said a senior RSS leader. At the same time, BJP strategists also feel that the BJP's stance of sitting in the Opposition in the event of the hung Lok Sabha will also create a lot of confusion in the Opposition's rank and pre-empt the possibility of regional satraps seeking their pound of flesh in the post-poll government formation exercise.

However, a group of pragmatist leaders in the BJP is averse to the idea of giving up their efforts to forge the coalition even if the NDA is much below the majority figure.

Leaders like Pramod Mahajan have kept their channels open with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav and even Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, to shore up the NDA's strength in the event of crisis.

Apparently, the issue of the government formation will pose a serious crisis if the prediction by the exit poll comes true.