Indian prime minister-elect Sonia Gandhi and her new government are likely to be sworn in on Wednesday after a hectic weekend sealing deals with allies and new partners, officials in her Congress party said.
Italian-born Gandhi will meet Indian President Abdul Kalam today armed with letters of support from several parties to stake her claim to government after ousting the ruling Hindu nationalists in India's biggest election upset last week, they said.
Leftist parties, which won a pivotal 60-plus seats in the election, have pledged their support for Gandhi, but were debating yesterday whether to formally join her coalition or simply back it from outside.
PHOTO: AFP
The communists are also discussing a joint economic policy with an eye to reassuring investors after the rupee and shares crashed on Friday to their lowest in months.
Gandhi's Congress party has secured enough support from its allies to almost guarantee she will be the next prime minister -- and India's first foreign-born leader. She will also be the family's fourth prime minister after her slain husband, Rajiv, mother-in-law Indira and Indira's father Jawaharlal Nehru.
Despite routing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress fell short of a majority in the 545-seat parliament and Gandhi has been in hectic negotiations to settle on the size and shape of her coalition.
So far, the left is divided on whether to join Gandhi. Some communist groups are in direct opposition to the Congress at the state level.
Their support is critical. The leading leftist group, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is the largest in the new parliament, with 43 seats, after Congress and the BJP.
"I thank the people of India from my heart. We have succeeded against all odds, we have prevailed despite all predictions of disaster," Gandhi said on Saturday after Congress chose her as its parliamentary chief, effectively anointing her as India's next prime minister.
"There is now a momentum generated by our revival, let us not squander it. We must utilize it as a catalyst for change."
Congress, which first put India on the path to reform by ditching its socialist economics a decade ago, has pledged to continue Vajpayee's program of economic modernization, but with "a human face."
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