The President's Choice

Updated on: 7 February 2024 7:38 pm

ONCE the Lok Sabha results came in, President Shankar Dayal Sharma made up his mind to call the single largest party. Outlook 's enquiries in Rashtrapati Bhawan reveal that even if P.V. Narasimha Rao's letter to the President promising support to the National Front had arrived 24 hours earlier, it would have made no difference to his original decision to invite the BJP to form the Government.

From fractured mandate to the Vajpayee Government, this is how the events unfolded:

Since the final election results indicated that there would be a hung Parliament, the President gave instructions on May 11 and12 that an official statement should be issued from Rash-trapati Bhawan stating that he would decide on which party to call to form the Government after the notification of the election results and after the new Lok Sabha was constituted.

The three Election Commissioners called on the President on May 16. The President then called the leader of the largest single party, A.B.Vajpayee, and asked him to form the Government.

The President did not feel obliged to consult legal opinion on who he should call to form the Government. There was no real need to do so.

He, however, received a large number of letters and telephone calls giving suggestions and advice about calling one party or the other to form the Government. This included public statements by former president R. Venkataraman and constitutional lawyers like Nani Palkhiwala who were of the firm view that the President should call the leader of the largest party in the Lok Sabha. This apart, leaders of various political parties called on the President between May 12 and 15, to ascertain his views as well as to stake their claim to form the Government.

The President, being a constitutional lawyer himself, was clear that objective constitutional norms required him to invite the leader of the largest party to form the Government.

The President was not inclined to indulge in using any discretionary power on the matter of inviting the leader of any political party. He was clear in his mind that he would follow objective criteria and clearly laid-down constitutional and procedural requirements.

The presidential decision in this matter, according to Sharma, was not to depend on piecemeal communications from various political parties. Given this self-imposed restraint, he felt he had little choice but to allow the BJP first shot.