NEW DELHI, 21 August 2003 — The Hindu-nationalist Indian government’s victory over the opposition in a bruising two-day no-confidence debate in Parliament has drawn the electoral battlelines ahead of key state polls later this year.
The motion, sponsored by the main opposition Congress party, was defeated 312-186 in the lower house late on Tuesday at the climax of a furious debate which at times saw MPs come to blows. Charges and counter-charges flew from both sides in attempts to tarnish individual images.
When the dust finally settled, however, it was apparent that the next big electoral battle would be a face-off between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Italian-born president of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi. Five states go to polls in November, including four heartland and politically prestigious states that are currently ruled by Congress.
Parliamentary elections, meanwhile, are scheduled for September-October next year but there is already talk that they may be brought forward to February. In the last general elections, one of the ruling BJP’s main election planks was the foreign origin of Gandhi, who was born in Italy but later assumed Indian citizenship after marrying former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaigned against Gandhi being projected as the next prime minister, saying India’s leader should be an Indian-born citizen. The tone and tenor of the debate on Tuesday night made it abundantly clear that the coming elections would be a direct clash between Vajpayee and Sonia.
BJP MPs and their allies repeatedly attacked Gandhi’s Italian origins and derided her for not being able to speak fluent Hindi, saying her written text was against the normal practice of extempore speeches during no trust motion debates. Charges of corruption were also levelled against Gandhi to counter a nine-point chargesheet she brought against the government during the debate. The constant ragging frequently led to pandemonium in the house as Congress members jumped to defend their leader.
Gandhi, in her attack, launched a broadside at Vajpayee’s government, accusing it of all round failure.
