PTI [ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 05, 2002 6:27:30 PM ]

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Wednesday said it would stake claim to form the
government in Maharashtra alongwith the Shiv Sena if the Vilasrao
Deshmukh government fails to prove its majority in the state assembly.


"We will stake claim to form the government only after the government
fails to prove its majority. We would not like to destabilise the
government," party spokesman Sunil Shastri told reporters here.


He said the NCP-Congress government was reduced to minority as the
MLAs had lost confidence in it.


Asked whether it was proper for individual MLAs to withdraw support
to the government, he said, "the NCP has failed to keep its flock
together. Why should we be blamed for that?"


He said Shiv Sena's nominee would become Chief Minister in the event
of the Sena-BJP combine assuming power in the state and "we would
complete the full tenure."


Earlier, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna had quoted party supremo Bal
Thackeray as claiming that it was a matter of days before the Sena-
BJP combine would assume power and that it could prove its majority
on the floor of the House within seven days.


Shastri declined to comment on the issue of VSNL's decision to invest
in Tata Teleservices saying "the matter is closed so far as the party
is concerned."


Party's economic cell chief Jagdish Shettigar had opposed the VSNL
decision but said the party was not against the disinvestment process
as such.