Despite its public posture, the BJP does not appear to be much interested in facing an early general election. This much was evident when the party missed an opportunity to put the government in the dock on the IRA bill during the monsoon session of Parliament.
Instead of pressing for voting on the amendment moved by party MP Guman Mal Lodha in the Lok Sabha, senior leaders demanded that the bill be withdrawn. A voting on the amendment, which was certain to be carried in the absence of most Congress members, would have meant defeat for the government.
'We were under the impression that the bill was a money bill and its defeat would have created certain problems for the government's survival,' a senior party leader admitted. None of the BJP leaders wanted to take the blame for the government's discomfiture which might have culminated in an early mid-term poll, he said.
Former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi was also reluctant to press for the amendment, he claimed, and pointed out that Joshi was one of the first from the BJP benches to have demanded the bill be withdrawn.
Senior leader Atal Behari Vajpayee had reportedly told Joshi that he could go ahead with any measure to embarrass the government on the bill. The BJP had an opportunity to at least score a point by forcing the government to accept its amendment, but it was missed, a BJP office-bearer said.
Just when a general mood had built up that the amendment be put to vote, BJP floor managers were told of a 'rumour' that the IRA bill was a money bill and that its defeat could lead to the government's fall, one of the floor managers said.
None of the party leaders wanted to bear the ire of MPs in case a mid-term poll is forced, he said.
It was not surprising that the demand for the bill's withdrawal came almost simultaneously from Joshi and party general secretaries Pramod Mahajan and Sushma Swaraj.
The IRA bill was a finance bill under rule 173 and not a money bill, an official in the Lok Sabha secretariat clarified. Even if the amendment were accepted it would not have affected the government, he added.
