Joshi denies threat from independents

Displaying scorn towards Congress leader Sharad Pawar’s stance, Joshi said that he had been predicting the fall the Government ever since it was sworn-in on March 14, 1994. Joshi pointed that Pawar had also gone to the extent of saying the Government would fall in 48 hours. “The alliance Government, however had, won the vote of confidence on three occasions on the floor of the house,” Joshi asserted.

(The Congress’ campaign manager Gulam Nabi Azad today said in New Delhi that the days of Maharashtra and Rajasthan governments were numbered. After his visit to Maharashtra, Azad told thepress that the independents supporting Maharashtra government were set to pull the rug from beneath the coalition Government and it is matter of days before it collapsed).

“I do not think that Pawar will succeed in splitting the independent legislators supporting alliance government. Out of the 43 independent legislators, only eight are in his camp, while the remaining are with the alliance. After the Lok Sabha elections, I am sure they will return to us,” Joshi claimed.

According to reports, Pawar had a closed door meeting with about a dozen independent legislators led by former Cooperation Minister C A Kedar at Nagpur on January 9. Subsequently, a record number of 22 independent legislators personally called on the former Chief Minister at Sangli in the third week of January. In both these meetings, the independent legislators express desire to return to the Congress fold.

Joshi described as `baseless’ the reports appearing in a section of the press that there was poor response to his electionmeetings, particularly in the Vidarbha and Marathwada region. “The response to my meetings was unexpected and I think it should not be difficult for the alliance to retain all 33 seats it had won in the last elections. In addition, we will wrest two seats more from the Congress,” Joshi hoped.

Replying to a question, the Chief Minister said neither the Central Intelligence Bureau nor the the State Intelligence Officials have submitted any report that painted a bleak scenario of the Sena-BJP’s poll scenario.

The intelligence reports were believed to have suggested that the coalition would not secure more than 20 out of 48 seats in the state. “On the contrary, senior police officials have informed me that the alliance was better placed compared to other parties,” Joshi asserted. The chief minister, however, admitted that the response to Sonia Gandhi’s elections meeting in the state was unexpected, though, he emphasised that “merely on the basis of the response, it will be difficult to say ifthe electorate will change their mind in favour of Congress”.

On his party’s support to Suresh Kalmadi, Joshi justified it saying the alliance supported his nomination, since he was likely to win the seat.