ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW DELHI, INDIA
India's 2-week-old Hindu nationalist government collapsed Tuesday, shunned by other parties that could not stomach its policies toward Muslims. An alliance of 13 parties, headed by a regional powerbroker from the south, was named to replace it.
The shift ended the shortest-lived administration in India's history.
H.D. Deve Gowda, leader of the United Front, was chosen as the next prime minister by India's ceremonial president, Shankar Dayal Sharma, and asked to form a government within two weeks.
He succeeded Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who resigned hours earlier after a contentious two-day debate in parliament that laid bare India's divide between Hindus and Muslims. - Associated Press
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