Non-BJP, non-Congress PM feasible in 2014: Advani

New Delhi : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Sunday shocked his party by admitting that the 2014 general elections may throw up a non-BJP and non-Congress prime minister. He also claimed that the Congress’s score will reduce to less than 100 seats in the Lok Sabha.

But, in a rider to this prediction, Advani, in his latest blog, said vombinations of the kind that had been witnessed in the past would not last long.

Advani was speculating on the ruling Congress’ fate in the the Lok Sabha polls that is ordinarily scheduled in 2014.

“A non-Congress, non-BJP prime minister heading a government supported by one of these two principal parties is, however, feasible. This has happened in the past also,” he said in the blog posted on the BJP website here.

Advani also said that soothsayers were predicting that this elections may be the first when Congress’ score sinks to just two digits, that is less than a 100 seats in the Lok Sabha.

“But, as the prime ministership of Ch. Charan Singh, Chandrashekharji, Deve Gowdaji and Inder Kumarji Gujral (all supported by Congress) as also of Vishwanath Pratap Singhji (supported by BJP) have shown, such governments have never lasted long,” he said.

Advani stated this after narrating his casual conversation with two ministers in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre during the dinner hosted by the prime minister in honour of outgoing president Pratibha Patil recently at Hyderabad House in the national capital.

The BJP leader said he could clearly perceive “an intense sense of concern” weighing on the minds of both these ministers, whose apprehensions were that in the next Lok Sabha polls, neither Congress nor BJP may be able to forge an alliance that gained a clear majority and that whenever the polls are held, there could be a Third Front government, which could be extremely harmful not only for the stability of the Indian politics, but also for national interests.

However, Advani did not agree with these assessments of the Congress ministers. “My response to the anxiety voiced by these Congressmen was: I can understand your concern, but I do not share it,” he said in the blog.

Among Advani’s views were that Indian politics of the last two-and-half decades had made it practically impossible for any government to be formed at the centre which does not have the support of either the Congress of the BJP.

“A Third Front government, therefore, can be ruled out,” he said. He also noted that the central government had been stable in the past only when it either had a Congress or a BJP prime minister.

“Unfortunately, the two governments since 2004, UPA-I and UPA-II have both been so badly mismanaged that the current state of anxiety in the ruling establishment is quite understandable,” he added.

He said Congress’ fast eroding reputation would continue to benefit BJP, which had done well in governance all over the country except in Karnataka.