I would like to state the facts as they are about this Rajasthan affair. Some Members have tried to make out that this was the first act of this new democratic government. Yes, it is one of the major acts after the Council of Ministers was sworn in . But any government has to perform its duty even though it is a sad duty. And a Proclamation of this type had to be agreed to and had to be issued as a duty, though it was a sad duty. I would like to make the position very clear at the outset that it was not a pleasant choice. But really speaking, there was no other choice. And when I make this statement, certainly I shall have to state the facts and point out how the whole thing had developed. It is much better to see this decision in the context of the events that led to it. One of the Members has asked why it is that the Governor had waited for so many days after the announcement of the results of the elections on the 25th or the 28th February. Naturally, the Governor had to wait till the 28th February. The previous Government resigned on the 28th February and it was only after the resignation and after the dissolution of the old Assembly that the governor could start the process of forming a new government.
If we look to the results - this question of arithmetic that is raised very often, namely 89 versus 93 is very interesting certainly, but the picture of the election results as it has emerged makes it very clear that no political party had absolute majority as a result of the elections. That fact has to be conceded because it is a fact. Whether one likes it or not, it is a fact some people have tried to interpret it as a defeat of the Congress. If it is a defeat of the Congress, certainly the Congress will accept it as a defeat. In many other States where the Congress was defeated in the sense that the other parties had a majority, we certainly accepted the defeat. But in the case of Rajasthan, it is difficult to accept that the Congress was defeated in that sense, because every other . political party was equally defeated and badly defeated too. If we look at the figures of the number of people elected, no party can say that it had a majority, neither the Swatantra Party nor the Jan Sangh nor even the Communist Party because they had only one solitary Member elected to the State Assembly.
Shri S. A. Dange : Who decided the fate.
Shri Y. B. Chavan : He is certainly capable of making such feats. There is no doubt about it. That really speaking explains that the existence of only one Member can be construed as a majority. Shri S. A. Dange alone can do that, and nobody else can do that.
What is the significance of this? We have to consider one thing that the Governor or any person placed in that position had to take an objective view of the picture that was emerging. If there was a pre-existing coalition - I am deliberately saying this - before the elections, if any party or group of parties had decided to form a United Front, that is understandable. It is an accepted political device. If it had collectively a majority, I can understand it. On the basis also, the pre-existing coalition, in whatever form it might have existed in Rajasthan, had no majority after the elections. Their total strength came to 80.