New Delhi: President Pratibha Patil is likely to ask parties for letters of support from their allies before inviting one of them to form a government if the results on May 16 throw up a hung Parliament.
Sources have told CNN-IBN that President Pratibha Patil is likely to follow the model of former president K R Narayanan in event of a hung Parliament.
Former president K R Narayanan in 1998 and 1999 had not gone by the rule of inviting the single largest party to form the government but had asked the parties to show how they would muster a majority in Parliament with letters of support.
Sources say President Patil has already begun consulting legal experts regarding government formation and is likely to ask any party or group to get letters of support from allies.
CNN-IBN Nation Bureau Chief Bhupendra Chaubey reports that the President will look at 'stability' in inviting any party or alliance to form the next government.
"What it effectively implies is that the argument put forward by both the BJP and Congress over the last one week that the President must invite the single largest party or the single largest alliance changes a bit. Post May 16 President Pratibha Patil will look which of the two alliances - NDA and UPA - is ahead of the other," reports Chaubey.
"She will then invite that alliance which is ahead of the other first. She will ask them specifically and clearly whether they are in a position to get 272 which is required for government formation. She is not just going to go by verbal assurances but will demand letters of support. If the UPA is ahead of the NDA then the alliance (UPA) has to show on paper support of parties like Left, AIADMK, BJD or any other prospective allay that the UPA has been trying to aggressively woo. If the alliance fails to get 272 then the next party or alliance like the NDA will get the change. The NDA will then have to follow the similar path," he adds.
Chaubey points out that President Patil is only following the precedent set by former president K R Narayanan.
"There are four precedents which are going to guide the President. As sources say she will go by letters of support of MPs and she will be following the precedent set by former president KR Narayanan in 1998 when he had invited Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who as the leader of the BJP was the leader of the single largest party and the leader of the single largest alliance. But he specifically asked Vajpayee for letters of support from all 272 MPs. Similar model was followed by president APJ Abdul Kalam as well when the UPA was sworn into power in 2004 after it emerged as the single largest pre-poll alliance with Congress as the single largest party heading it," he reports.
Clarifying why the letters of support are important Chaubey reports, "In 1996 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee had emerged as the leader of the single largest party after Narasimha Rao had been defeated and Shakar Dayal Sharma had appointed him as the prime minister for the infamous13-day period. But Vajpayee did not have the numbers with him and therefore he was forced to resign."
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So, President Patil does not want to follow Sharma's model and that is why the insistence on letters of support.
Former Lok Sabha secretary-general and constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap, however, opines that the President should keep away from the number game.
"I think it is very unfortunate that the President should involve herself in this controversial exercise. The President should maintain the dignity of the highest office she holds and for that it is necessary that she should not only be absolutely impartial but also appear to be so. The power point is with the President and the President has to appoint. But the question is how will the President find out who will command the support in the House. It is the House which should decide. The nest thing for the President would have been to ask the House."
When asked what is wrong if the President insists on letters of support, Kashyap replies, "It is not in the interest of democracy as it will encourage horse trading, it will encourage buying and selling of legislatures and it will encourage unholy alliances. Some parties and leaders will demand that cases against us should be withdrawn, some will demand ministership and some will demand downright cash payment."
After the Jharkhand fiasco when Shibu Soren was sworn in as the chief minister for a day without having support, the Supreme Court had laid down guidelines that the floor for the House is the only place for electing a government or dislodging a government.
So will the President be violating the Supreme Court order if she insists on letters of support?
"Yes! It would be not directly but it would be the violation of the spirit because in the Bommai case also the Supreme Court had that the question of majority should be settled on the floor of the House and Constitution Commission has also said that is should be settled on the floor of the House. Sarkaria Commission has said it. Shibu Soren was appointed the chief minister as he had made and unholy alliance and demanded that he should be made the chief minister to support the government," clarifies Kashyap.
"Which ever party or pre-poll alliance is the single largest should be called to form the government without the President doing any headcount and think of the magic figure of 272. If a pre-poll alliance has more members then its leader should be called but if any party has more members than the pre-poll alliance that that party should be called," Kashyap adds.
So even as political parties try to get post-poll allies and wait for the results all eyes are fixed on the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
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