Rattled by exit polls, PM raises 'stability' issue

Raising the spectre of instability, Vajpayee likened the situation in the country to the one after 1977 polls.

Raising the spectre of instability, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday likened the situation in the country to the one after 1977 polls which saw the first non-Congress government disintegrating due to internecine quarrels on occupying the Prime Minister's chair.

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"After driving the Congress out of power the (Janata) leaders started fighting among themselves on the issue of Prime Ministership. A similar situation is being witnessed today," he told an election rally here accusing the opposition leaders of showing "undue haste to grab" the top post in the wake of exit poll predictions of a hung house.

Noting that the exit poll projections put the NDA ahead and Congress "also gaining some lead" which was "not expected by us", he said the real picture would emerge only out of the ballot box.

Making the Congress the focus of his attack, Vajpayee said that the party wants to come back to power using its old slogans like "garibi hatao."

"If it is still garibi hatao now, what did they do all these years," he said adding that under the Congress basic problems of the nation have increased as the party has failed to solve them.

Can the Congress get majority on its own, wondered the Prime Minister saying that the 119-year old party had lost its moorings.