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India government ally attacks minister,meets Sonia

(Adds Sonia Gandhi's comments)

NEW DELHI: India's Hindu nationalist- led coalition on Tuesday faced the prospect of its most fickle partner building bridges with the opposition and demanding the removal of Defence Minister George Fernandes.

Jayaram Jayalalitha, leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), whose support is vital to the survival of the government, stuck to her demands that Fernandes should be moved and the man he sacked as chief of the naval staff, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, should be reinstated.

"If an end has to be found to the controversy, Bhagwat should be reinstated or Fernandes shifted," Press Trust of India quoted Jayalalitha as telling reporters here after attending a seminar on Indo-US relations.

Jayalalitha met opposition leader Sonia Gandhi, whose Congress party has pushed for a probe into Bhagwat's sacking, at a social engagement on Monday which the AIADMK leader said would send tremors through the political landscape.

"There was an earthquake last night. You can call this (gathering at the reception) a political earthquake," Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted Jayalalitha as saying in reply to a query on whether her meeting with Gandhi would lead to a political realignment.

"I have not studied political astrology. In politics, anything can happen," the head of the powerful southern party said.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi speaking in the northwestern city of Jaipur slammed the government for sacking Bhagwat.

"The sensitive department at the ministry of defence is not been properly run by the BJP government as it has been proved by the sacking of Admiral Bhagwat," she told reporters.

Sonia said there was a question mark over the credibility of the BJP-led government."

"The BJP government is answerable for the sacking of former naval chief and the Vajpayee government should order a probe into the circumstances which led to the sacking of the naval chief," she said. "The truth would come out only if an inquiry is ordered."

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee reissued support over the weekend for Fernandes over the sacking of the naval chief last December.

Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party said there was no threat to the year-old coalition government and said too much should not be read into Jayalalitha's meeting with bitter BJP opponent Sonia Gandhi.

"There is no threat to the government. Social gatherings do take place. We should not read too much into such gatherings," BJP spokesman Venkaiah Naidu said.

"It is either Vajpayee government or election," he said.

Jayalalitha's AIADMK, based in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, controls 19 votes in the fragmented 545-member lower house of parliament, and two members of her party are in Vajpayee's council of ministers.-Reuters