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No Better Leader Other Than Vajpayee: Ruling Coalition
India's ruling coalition the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Wednesday expressed full confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, saying that at present there is no better leader to lead the alliance other than Vajpayee.
The NDA leaders, at a meeting here on Wednesday morning, succeeded in persuading the prime minister not to press for his resignation, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
Vajpayee, at a meeting of his Bharatiya Janata Party's Parliament Party on Tuesday morning, offered to resign due to " inability" to have the NDA function in a "coherent and disciplined manner," but was later persuaded by senior Party and cabinet colleagues to abandon the proposal.
India media believed that a sharp attack on the Prime Minister' s Office and allegations on its links with a major mutual fund investment scandal by a Shiv Sena Party lawmaker had provoked Vajpayee's desire to quit office. Shiv Sena is one of the more than 20 parties in the NDA, which came into power after winning the parliament majority in October 1999.
The NDA coordination committee meeting, convened immediately after the resignation offer by Vajpayee, also decided to set up a four-member committee to evolve a code of conduct for NDA constituents, the PTI said.
"The NDA is resolved not to allow the Opposition to make political capital out of this development," the PTI quoted a meeting resolution as saying.
Sources said that no representative of the Shiv Sena Party was present at Wednesday's meeting.
However, the Mumbai-based Party on Wednesday, as it had done on Tuesday, distanced itself from the parliament member who attacked the Prime Minister's Office, claiming that "whatever he said in the House had nothing to do with Sena."
"Only Vajpayee can lead the nation. He should not think of resigning when the country is in crisis," Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray was quoted as saying in Mumbai.
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