Socialist Backed by Gandhi May Form New India Government

Veteran Indian socialist Chandra Shekhar moved closer Tuesday to forming a new Indian government by securing the support of opposition leader Rajiv Gandhi, a day after splitting Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh’s Janata Dal party.

Shekhar did not immediately stake his claim to form a government. He suggested after a meeting with President Ramaswami Venkataraman that this would come after Singh loses a vote of confidence today.

“It will be clear in a day or two,” he said.

Shekhar, after splitting Singh’s Janata Dal party Monday and winning Gandhi’s support over breakfast Tuesday, had been expected to stake his claim quickly to form a government.

But asked whether he had done so in his meeting with Venkataraman, who will decide whom to ask to take the job, he told reporters: “That stage has not yet come.”

There was still some doubt about whether Shekhar would be asked to be the next prime minister. Political sources said Venkataraman was unhappy with the idea of asking the head of a small faction to take the job.

But the sources said that when Gandhi backed Chandra Shekhar, Venkataraman’s options narrowed.

Singh is sure to lose the vote of confidence after the withdrawal of support for his minority government in October by the Hindu revivalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Monday’s split in his own party.

“It is all up to the president now. He will have to decide who forms the government after the Parliament vote,” said one Congress source close to Gandhi.

Singh aides say he wants to “go down in flames” in Parliament to show the country who supports which side on two controversial issues.

Singh’s plan to increase government jobs for lower-caste Hindus produced widespread violence.

Then, the BJP took over a militant Hindu campaign to demolish a mosque and replace it with a Hindu temple in the holy northern town of Ayodhya. Singh firmly opposed the campaign, which has led to the deaths of more than 200 people in Hindu-Muslim violence.