The Hindu : Differences in BJP on Govt. formation with BSP support

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 20, 2002

National

National

Differences in BJP on Govt. formation with BSP support
By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, FEB. 19. The Bharatiya Janata Party continues to maintain that it will be able to get a ``near majority'' in Uttar Pradesh and form the next Government with the help of a few independents, but at the informal level a discussion has already begun on the possibility of Government formation with the help of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

On February 25, the day after election results are expected to be available, the BJP's parliamentary board is likely to meet to review the situation. But there are some in the party who have begun advocating that it would be better to sit in the Opposition rather than help the BSP leader, Mayawati, to emerge as the Chief Minister, in a BJP-BSP coalition Government.

``Rajnath Singh has emerged as a party leader in the State. After Kalyan Singh he is the leader who has acquired a certain stature. It would be a big mistake to make him play second fiddle to Ms. Mayawati,'' said a party leader today. He added that there were other influential leaders in the party who felt this way. ``We would be destroying Mr. Rajnath Singh as a leader if we agree to Ms. Mayawati becoming the Chief Minister. It would be better and wiser to sit out in the Opposition.''

At the same time, some party leaders admitted that they expected a large number of newly-elected BSP MLAs to come over to the BJP as they had been financed by Mr. Rajnath Singh. Apparently, this was part of the BJP's strategy.

It is a fact that many of the big BJP guns in the State, including the State unit president, Kalraj Mishra, and senior Minister, Lalji Tandon, have been close to Ms. Mayawati and may once again be inclined towards a coalition between the BJP and the BSP even if it means giving up the chief ministership.

The differing attitudes in the party will be given full play after the results come out, especially if the BJP and its allies fail to emerge as the largest political formation. But it is also a fact, and all agree, that in the final analysis the Prime Minister's word will carry the day. And that may very well veer towards an allout effort to form a Government of which the BJP is a part, even if it means a marriage of convenience with political foes.

For the record though, the BJP general secretary in- charge of elections, Pyarelal Khandelwal, discounts the predictions of exit polls and is confident that the party and its allies will together get some 190 plus seats, just short of a majority in a house of 403, and this will be the single largest pre-poll political alliance.

But he has conceded that while he was confident of a majority for the BJP and its allies, the Governor was duty-bound to ``first invite'' the ``largest single pre-poll alliance'' to try and form a Government. Only if that formation fails to do so, should the second largest party and its allies be invited. Mr. Khandelwal also added that this principle had been established, especially after the 1996 Lok Sabha elections when the BJP was given the chance by the President to form a Government.

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