kammula@plato.engr.umbc.edu (06/20/91)
************************************************* Source: [NEWSCLIPS/INFO.SERVICES.MAIL] MAIL/USA Forwarded mail ************************************************* Subj: POWER STRUGGLE BEGINS OVER INDIAN PRIME MINISTER POST NEW DELHI, INDIA (JUNE 19) UPI - Leaders of the Congress (I) Party maneuvered for position Wednesday in a growing power struggle over who would be the country's next prime minister once election officials announce the results of the last few undecided parliamentary races. The Congress (I) Party, left leaderless by the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi last month, emerged as the largest party in Parliament following national elections but is almost certain to fall short of an absolute majority. With election results announced in 470 races, the Congress and its allies controlled 228 seats. The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies captured 109 seats and the National Front-Left Front grouping won 104 seats. Results were being tabulated in only 511 seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. Elections in some states were not held because of security problems, and new balloting was ordered in a few districts because of voting irregularities. The Congress (I) Party was 28 seats shy of the 256 needed for an absolute majority. Most of the 41 races still outstanding were in the northern Hindi heartland states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where Congress has been taking a drubbing. With elections finished and vote count almost concluded, leaders of the Congress Party began a long-expected power struggle for the post of prime minister. Officials had delayed a decision on the prime minister position until after elections, fearing a divisive battle that would split the party. The power struggle shaped up as a battle over how to select the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. The organization is comprised of Congress members of Parliament, and the leader of the group becomes prime minister. P.V. Narasimha Rao, 70, who succeeded Gandhi as Congress Party president, has been advocating a consensus decision. As a member of the click that formed the Gandhi family's inner-circle of advisers, Rao himself would be the most likely consensus candidate. Rao, who did not seek election in the current round of voting because of ill health, has no significant base of support among the voters. As a result he is not perceived as a threat to rival state party bosses and his selection as prime minister would not alienate anyone. Rao told state-run Indian television Tuesday the party would decide on a parliamentary leader ''in the next two or three days.'' ''We are trying to have a consensus candidate elected as the party's unanimous choice,'' he said. The senior party statesman is opposed by Sharad Pawar, 51, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, who has launched a drive to have the prime minister chosen democratically by a secret ballot. Pawar has been given credit for the Congress (I)'s outstanding performance in Maharashtra and would probably do well in a democratic contest because of the number of lawmakers he helped get elected to Parliament. The Maharashtra party leader gained strength for his cause late Tuesday, with 43 new members of Parliament endorsing a letter calling for an election to choose the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, the Times of India newspaper reported. ''The newly constituted CPP ... must be left free to exercise its democratic right of electing a leader,'' the Times of India quoted the letter as saying. The letter criticized the other alternative, saying, ''The process to arrive at consensus is not clear.'' ''The Congress today needs courage, commitment, dynamism and an undiluted adherence to the ideology of the party and the principles of democracy,'' the letter said. ''That is the only way it can meet the challenge of free India's history.'' The Congress was expected to move quickly to form a new government in a bid to halt the elections scheduled for June 22 in strife-torn Punjab state, where at least 20 candidates have been killed by Sikh extremists. Congress has appealed for the elections to be canceled and refused to participate, saying the violence made a mockery of holding fair elections free from intimidation and threats. Despite their often bitter differences, it appeared the Congress would have little difficulty gaining some form of support from the Left Front or the National Front coalitions. After the bloodiest elections in India's parliamentary history and Gandhi's assassination while campaigning, none of the political parties want to go back to the voters anytime soon. The Left Front and National Front also are concerned about the BJP's strong showing in the elections. The Congress, National Front and Left Front are all strong proponents of the country's secular political tradition and have bcked and angered by the BJP's flagrant use of the Hindu religion to garner votes. Subj: INVESTIGATORS ARREST TWO MORE IN GANDHI CASE, LTTE INVOLVEMENT ESTABLISHED NEW DELHI (JUNE 19) - Indian investigators arres two more suspects, including a Sri Lankan national, in connection with the murder of Rajiv Gandhi and claimed they had now established the involvement of Tamil militants. Robert Payas, a 25-year-old Sri Lankan, was arrested late Tuesday and G. Perarivalan, 20, Wednesday in Madras, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said, quoting investigators in the southern port city. They were charged with conspiracy in the slaying of the former premier who died in a bomb attack May 21 in Sriperumpudur, 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Madras. Madras is the capital of Tamil Nadu state and separated from Sri Lanka by a narrow strip of sea. The latest arrests took to six the number of suspects taken into custody and formally charged with involvement in the assassination. The four arrested earlier were identified as Padma, a Madras nurse, her son Bhagyanathan and daughter Nalini, and Murugan, a Sri Lankan Tamil. The investigators say a woman suicide bomber from the Sri Lankan militant group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), killed Mr. Gandhi when he arrived to address a poll rally. The assassin also died instantly. The LTTE, however, has denied its involvement. Investigators are still looking for two others, Sivarajan, LTTE's intelligence chief who was alleged to have master-minded the plot, and an Indian Tamil woman, Subha. End of article ==============