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Venkaiah Naidu rebuffs Katiyar

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI JAN. 22. The Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu, today virtually rebuffed the party's Uttar Pradesh unit president, Vinay Katiyar, by stating that the BJP had no plans to withdraw from the Mayawati Government, in which it is a coalition partner. "There was no plan for withdrawing from the Bahujan Samaj Party-led Government and not even a discussion on the issue.'' It was pointed out to him by the press that Mr. Katiyar had said that rather than ignore the snubbing of the BJP workers by the Uttar Pradesh administration, his party would withdraw support from the Mayawati Government.

Mr. Katiyar was reported to have made this remark after listening to the grievances of party workers who felt that there was no fair play from the State administration and that the BJP workers were ignored, snubbed and humiliated. He promised them that this situation would not be allowed to continue.

He was reported to have stated that he would raise the Ram temple issue as well as the mandir-masjid controversies in Kashi and Mathura.

Abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in relation to Jammu and Kashmir and legislation on a uniform civil code were also priorities for the BJP, he is reported to have said.

However, at the party headquarters here, it has been repeatedly stated that the BJP wanted the Mayawati Government to run its full course of five years and it was not in the party's interest to pull the rug from under the feet of the Mayawati Government in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections of 2004.

The BJP had made it clear on several occasions that it would favour a pre-election tie-up with the BSP in U.P. for the Lok Sabha elections.

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