New Delhi - After eight days of inconclusive political mayhem, India is finally to hold its third general election in three years after opposition parties failed to form an alternate administration to replace the collapsed coalition government led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, Rahul Bedi reports.
"The time has arrived for the democratic will of the people to be ascertained so that a government can be formed to address the needs of the people," President K.R. Narayanan said in a statement yesterday while officially dissolving the parliament.
The date for the election will be decided later by the Election Commission. Earlier, the caretaker Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behrai Vajpayee, had recommended that the President dissolve parliament and call elections as soon as possible following his government's defeat in a confidence motion by a single vote on April 17th.