NEW DELHI: India’s Congress party, which surged back to power following month-long elections, was yesterday invited to form the next government. President Pratibha Patil yesterday appointed Manmohan Singh as the country’s prime minister for a second consecutive term and proposed that the new government be sworn in tomorrow.
Manmohan, whose Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance won a sweeping mandate in the national elections, met with Pratibha at the presidential palace in New Delhi to seek her approval to form the new government.
Accompanied by the UPA Chairwoman Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan claimed the support of 322 lawmakers in the 545-member Lok Sabha, or lower house of Parliament. A party or coalition requires a simple majority of 272 members to form the government.
The new government will make security and promoting Hindu-Muslim tolerance a priority as it heads into a second term, while continuing its focus on raising the economic prospects of the country’s millions of poor, officials said yesterday.
Manmohan laid out the agenda at a meeting between the Congress party and its coalition allies, which were swept back to power in the recent national elections, said Congress spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi. “The prime minister said that among the priorities of the government would be internal security and communal harmony,” Dwivedi told reporters.
Earlier in the day, the Congress party and its allies haggled over Cabinet positions with Manmohan in a position to dictate terms after his party’s electoral triumph.
The party meeting was also attended by Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leaders, Mukherjee, A.K. Antony, Chidambaram and the allies, among others, included Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief M. Karunanidhi, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress (TC) supremo Mamata Bannerjee and National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah.
The meeting was not attended by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Laloo Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party leader (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan, indicating that there might not be space for them in the new Cabinet.
— With input from agencies
