HINDU nationalists voiced confidence yesterday they would form India's next government as a split emerged in a centre left alliance which has pledged to stop them from taking power.
"The BJP is unstoppable," said Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, shadow prime minister of the pro Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party), which won the largest number of seats in a hung parliament in the elections.
"We are confident of forming a government," he said, predicting failure for the efforts of the Congress (I) Party and the centrist leftist alliance, the National Front Left Front (NF-LF) to keep the BJP out of power.
Just hours after Mr Vajpayee spoke, cracks surfaced in the NFLF when the powerful Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM), one of the main components of the alliance, ruled out participation in a coalition government.
The CPI-M and the main centrist party, the Janata Dal, also ruled out joining a government with the Congress led by outgoing Prime Minister, Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao, who has been exploring the prospects of heading a coalition.
The CPI-M leader, Mr Jyoti Basu, one of India's most respected politicians, had been portrayed as the potential prime minister of an NF-LF coalition government, and the party's withdrawal was seen as a blow to the alliance.
"Jyoti Basu will not be the PM. It is ruled out," said Mr M.A. Baby, a veteran Communist parliamentarian who participated in a marathon meeting of the central committee.
He said there had been heated debate over whether the CPI-M should form a government along with the centrist parties of the National Front and whether Mr Basu should be in the race for prime minister. But both possibilities were ruled out.
The CPI-M would support a centrist, non Congress, non BJP government, he said, and would come to its aid in parliament.
The NF-LF, a loosely knit alliance with several leaders in the running for the prime minister's post, is known as the "third force" after the Congress and the BJP. It won about 100 seats in the lower house.