Congress says the trend for forming alliances was started by BJP in VP Singh govt

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi ridiculed the Opposition's attempt to forge a rainbow alliance, the Congress Friday claimed it was the BJP that started the process of forming alliances by extending support to the V P Singh government in 1989. Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari asked the prime minister if the Atal Vihari Vajpayee dispensation was a 'Mahamilavat' government.

"Vajpayee ji would be turning in his grave," he said while reacting to PM Modi's "mahamilavat" jibe at the Opposition. It was the BJP that started the process of forging alliances by extending support to the V P Singh government in 1989, he claimed.

When the BJP-headed NDA had around 42 allies, did the prime minister think that he was heading a "Mahamilavat" government, Tewari asked. Modi in his speech in Parliament on Thursday took potshots at attempts to cobble a grand alliance of opposition parties to take on the BJP, saying people do not want a "mahamilavat" (highly adulterated) government as they have seen how the NDA government which has a majority can deliver.