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London, May 7: Tory leader David Cameron, who ended up with 306 members in Britain’s 650-seat House of Commons after the general election, on Friday afternoon made a “big and comprehensive offer” to the Liberal Democrats to form a government together.

Mr Cameron has a fair chance of becoming the next British PM if he can negotiate a deal to govern in coalition with the Lib- Dems, or as the leader of a minority Tory government. Britain on Friday woke up to a hung Parliament with the Tories 20 seats short of a simple majority of 326. But Mr Cameron led his party to its best results in over 70 years, wresting 100 seats with a vote share of 36.5 per cent.
Labour, under the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, slumped to its lowest vote share ever at 29.1 per cent, winning only 258 seats.
The Liberal Democrats won fewer seats than in 2005. LibDem leader Nick Clegg stuck to his campaign stand and said the Tories as the party with the most seats and the biggest vote share had “the first right to seek to govern, either on its own or by reaching out to other parties”, putting an end to Labour’s attempts to cobble up a coalition because British political convention says the sitting PM has the first go at attempting to form government in a hung Parliament.
 

Sarju Kaul