New Delhi: Amid predictions of a hung Parliament, President A P J Abdul Kalam has set in motion the process of consulting constitutional and legal experts on the course to be pursued in case no party or pre-poll alliance gets a majority.

Former attorney general K Parasaran today (May 11, 2004) met the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan as part of these consultations.

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The President has also had a meeting with former Chief Justice of India J S Verma.

The last time when no party had emerged with clear majority after the Lok Sabha results in 1998, President K R Narayanan had asked Atal Bihari Vajpayee as leader of the single-largest party and the largest pre-election alliance, whether he was "able and willing" to form a "stable" Government, which can secure the confidence of the House.

According to the Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued on March 15 that year, Narayanan noted that 264 MPs supported Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Government, which was short of the halfway mark. However, when seen in the context of the Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) decision of its 12 MPs staying neutral, the number was seen as adequate.

Another factor that had helped the then President take his decision was his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who informed him that her party, the second largest formation in the 12th Lok Sabha, would not stake its claim to form a Government, as it did not have the necessary numbers.