A centrist opposition alliance Tuesday won pledges of support from the right and left and said it was ready to oust Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and form India's first minority government since independence.
Gandhi's Congress Party in turn said it was willing to step aside and become the opposition."We have not got a majority. That is the verdict of the people," party spokesman Anand Sharma said.
Gandhi's party won more Parliament seats than the National Front in elections that ended Sunday, but neither group has enough for a majority.
"The mandate in this election is unmistakably a mandate for a change of government," the National Front said in a statement read by its spokesman, Dinesh Goswamy, as the leaders of the five-party alliance met.
"The people of India want a non-Congress government to replace the corrupt and inefficient Congress government. It is therefore the sacred duty of the National Front to respect this mandate and to express its readiness to form a government," the statement said.
The National Front said a meeting will be held Wednesday to select the five-party alliance's candidate for the next prime minister of India, the world's most populous democracy.
The front's strategy was to opt for a minority government with the tacit support of an array of parties ranging from communists to Hindu nationalists.
The front's leader, former Gandhi ally Vishwanath Pratap Singh, met with leaders of the Communist Party-Marxist, who said they would support the National Front as long as it did not create a formal coalition with the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.
Smaller Communist and leftist groups also offered support with the same conditions, Indian news agencies said. The Bharatiya Janata said Monday it would support the National Front without entering into a binding coalition.