BJP 'rider' to tie-up with Trinamool

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, MARCH 19. The Bharatiya Janata Party will fight only 21 seats in Tamil Nadu - last night it agreed to give up 2 of the 23 seats offered to it earlier by the DMK, its major partner in the Assembly elections in the State. This was decided in the presence of the BJP Minister, Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu, in Chennai yesterday.

And in West Bengal, a seat adjustment with the Trinamool Congress hangs on a thread - it will depend on the Trinamool chief, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, ``clarifying her attitude towards the NDA government at the Centre.''

Apparently, it was the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, who put this rider to the possible tie-up between the BJP and the Trinamool at a meeting with the party president, Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi, this morning. Mr. Kailashpati Mishra, vice- president in-charge of West Bengal affairs, State unit president, Mr. Asim Ghosh, and some others were present.

The BJP has virtually said that it may prefer not to have a seat adjustment if the Trinamool decides to oppose the Government at the Centre, or even chooses to maintain a neutral stance, Mr. Mishra told reporters later.

He made it clear that the BJP would not make an issue of the number of seats allotted to it by the Trinamool, which stands at 39. But it wants about a dozen seats, which it thinks are not ``winnable'', to be exchanged for others where the prospects may be brighter.

More importantly, the BJP wants Ms. Banerjee, to spell out her party's relationship with the NDA clearly. As Mr. Mishra said, her resignation letter to the Prime Minister had some contradictions. While she said she was walking out of the NDA, she praised Mr. Vajpayee and said she had faith in his leadership. Did that mean she would not ``disturb'' his Government at the Centre?

The BJP, which does not have much of a stake in the West Bengal polls, seems to have calculated that Ms. Banerjee may be more desperate for the BJP's support for whatever it was worth, because for her the stakes are high. The party is keen on extracting its pound of flesh by way of a statement showing solidarity with the NDA Government, even if it is in the form of outside support.

Simultaneously, party leaders made it clear that the Bengal unit had been told to prepare to go it alone if the arrangement with the Trinamool did not materialise. But if it does, there is still some talk of a common manifesto, in line with the NDA agenda at the Centre.

The BJP's national executive committee meeting scheduled to be held in Kolkata from March 29 to 31 has been cancelled. Instead, the party will meet here on March 24 and 25, and end with a ``grand rally'' at the Ramlila grounds to be addressed by Mr. Vajpayee, the former Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, and other big guns of the NDA. The party spokesperson, Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said Mr. Bangaru Laxman, former president, ``would not be one of the speakers at the rally because he was no longer party president.''

Mr. Venkaiah Naidu told reporters that the BJP had agreed to part with two seats in Tamil nadu in view of the problems faced by the DMK in allotting seats for its numerous other small allies. It seems that the Tamil Nadu chapter on seat sharing for the BJP is now closed.

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