By IANS,
New Delhi : Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani Saturday spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and congratulated him on the surprise victory for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the national elections.
During the brief conversation, Manmohan Singh thanked Advani, who was prime ministerial candidate for the opposition National Democratic Alliance, and sought both his support and constructive criticism in running the government, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“We must open a new chapter in the working relations between the government and the principal opposition,” the official quoted the prime minister’s as telling Advani, the leader of the opposition in the present Lok Sabha.
Earlier in the day, when trends pointed towards a victory of sorts for the UPA, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit met with the prime minister at his official residence. The Congress has made a clean sweep of all seven seats in the capital.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi also greeted the prime minister, while Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck was first among the foreign dignitaries, said the PMO official.
“The prime minister also managed to attend to some official work.”
According to Congress general secretary Prithvi Raj Chavan, the prime minister also watched television in the morning.
“Given the current economic situation, he was extremely concerned about formation of a stable government,” he told reporters, adding a meeting of the cabinet would be called in the next two-three days.
Chavan said the party will have its own meeting and Sonia Gandhi will nominate leaders of both the houses in parliament before formally approaching President Pratibha Patil for the formation of the new government.