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India's minority coalition close to collapse
November 23, 1997
Web posted at: 11:34 a.m. EST (1634 GMT)NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- New elections appeared increasingly likely in India on Sunday as the country's minority coalition neared collapse in the wake of a report linking a government party to terrorist activities.
The report accused the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party of supporting the assassination of Congress party leader Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
The DMK, which rules the southern state of Tamil Nadu, has rejected involvement. The Indian authorities blamed Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatists for the assassination but the Tamil Tigers did not accept responsibility for the murder, which was carried out by a suicide bomber.
In the wake of the report, the Congress party -- which has dominated Indian politics for the most part since India's independence from Britain in 1947 -- demanded that the DMK be ousted from the coalition government.
However, Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral rejected the demand, raising the possibility that Congress, which keeps the minority coalition in power, might withdraw its support and trigger the collapse of Gujral's government.
"The election is 'round the corner," Gujral said on Saturday.
The coalition already suffered a near-collapse in April, when Congress withdrew its support and renewed it only after the coalition replaced then-Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda with Gujral.
United Front leaders were quoted as saying that the Congress party was deliberately raising the stakes for possible new elections because Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv's Italian-born widow, had signaled in part a willingness to campaign in case of a mid-term poll.
However, some observers said public enthusiasm for new elections -- which would come three years early -- was limited.
New Delhi Bureau Chief Anita Pratap and Reuters contributed to this report.
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