NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE

Advaniji talks about the formation of the NDA

“We decided to form a post-poll alliance based on a common minimum programme acceptable to all the constituent parties.While all other allies agreed to join the government, one of them, the TDP in Andhra Pradesh, headed by its Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, declared that it would support the Vajpayee government from outside. There was much bonhomie when leaders of all the alliance parties assembled at Atalji’s residence on Safdarjung Road in mid-March to formally elect him as their leader. We also had to settle a small matter- the name of our common platform. Several suggestions were made. Ultimately, my suggestion-National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-was readily accepted. For us in the BJP, it had an emotional resonance. The name of the conglomeration of Opposition parties, headed by Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee in the 1st Lok Sabha, was National Democratic Front. I suggested the slight change because ‘Front’ implied ad hocism, whereas ‘Alliance’ carries a sense of durability.

Even though it was evident that the BJP-led alliance on its own had the mandate to form the government, this did not deter some of our adversaries from trying to stitch together an alternative minus the BJP. ‘We will not allow the BJP and its allies to form the government at the Centre. There will be a coalition government of the United Front and Congress,’ said departing Prime Minister I.K. Gujral. A Congress spokesman said, ‘Although the BJP is the single largest party, we don’t expect the President to call them first because the Congress and the United Front will reach an understanding…and send him a communiqué.’ Ultimately, the logic of elementary mathematics prevailed over the lust for power. ‘We have no numbers to form a government, so we are not staking a claim,’ conceded Sonia Gandhi after meeting President Narayanan. It was clear from her statement that what prevented her from staking claim was the failure to rustle up the necessary numbers, not the realisation that the Congress had been denied a mandate by the people.The ten-day delay by President Narayanan in inviting Atalji to form the government raised many eyebrows. He had set a new precedent concerning the appointment of Prime Minister-namely, if an election to the Lok Sabha produced a hung House with no party or pre-election coalition having a majority, then only that person would be appointed Prime Minister who succeeds in convincing the President, through letters of support from allied parties, of his ability to secure the majority. In doing so, he diverged from the actions of his two illustrious predecessors, R. Venkataraman and Shankar Dayal Sharma, who had invited the leader of the single largest party or pre-election coalition to form the government without ascertaining their ability to secure the confidence of the House.

 Atalji was able to meet the President’s demand and was sworn in as Prime Minister on 19 March, on the condition that he would prove his majority in the Lok Sabha within ten days. I remember the proud occasion on that bright Thursday morning. The forecourt of the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan was aglow in the warm sunshine of early summer. After Atalji, it was my turn to be sworn in. After a gap of almost twenty-one years, I was back as a Minister in the Government of India. There were, however, two differences. In 1977, the swearing-in ceremony was an indoor affair: it had taken place in the Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. More importantly, Atalji, who had then been sworn in as a Minister in Morarji Desai’s government, had now become the Prime Minister. I became the Home Minister in his Cabinet”.

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