The Hindu : PM confers with colleagues on U.P.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 24, 2002

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PM confers with colleagues on U.P.
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 23. With barely a day left for the results of the elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly made known, the BJP leaders put their heads together on how best to cope with the task of government formation, given the strong possibility of a fractured verdict and a hung assembly. For now, the party's central leaders are inclined not to have anything to do with the Bahaujan Samaj Party, though the State-level leaders are against closing the door very firmly on an ``arrangement'' with Ms. Mayawati.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Rajnath Singh, and the State BJP president, Kalraj Mishra, came here to brief the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Home Minister, L.K. Advani, the party president, Jana Krishnamurthi, and the former party president, Kushabhau Thakre. The considered opinion among them is that a government could be formed only if any of the four antagonists - the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the Congress - is persuaded to join hands with one or the other, as happened in March 1997, nearly six months after the fractured verdict in October 1996. Also, the view is that the BJP would find it difficult to defend the Governor if he were to depart from the accepted convention that the largest party be invited to have the first crack at forming the government.

As the pre-poll surveys and exit polls gave the BJP the second spot behind the Samajwadi Party and predicted yet another fractured mandate, the non-BJP forces and parties too began preparing for breaking out of the impending stalemate. The non-BJP camp, though, is yet to start the process of rallying the ``secular'' forces.

After the meeting at the Prime Minister's Race Course residence, Rajnath Singh maintained that no one could be considered ``untouchable''. Party sources indicated that the idea of aligning with the Bahujan Samaj Party had not found favour yet. For the record, the BJP spokesperson, Maya Singh, said the party was exploring the possibility of government formation and ruled out joining hands with the BSP.

Party sources said the bitter experience the BJP had in the past with the BSP has led to reservations against a similar tie-up this time around. They said that in the event of the BJP being unable to make ground in government formation, a view was to have a stint in the Opposition and wait for the other formations to make an attempt. The possibility of imposing Central rule, as was done in 1996, was also said to be a possibility. Yet, any move would depend on the results and actual strength in the new Assembly the party would acquire after results are declared tomorrow.

The BJP Parliamentary Board is expected to meet here on Monday to finalise the party strategy. The National Democratic Alliance meeting scheduled for tomorrow has now been postponed to Tuesday.

On the other hand, the Samajwadi Party, a prime contender to regain power in the State, prefers to keep the spotlight away from the moves it is making to form the next government. At a press conference, the party general secretary, Amar Singh, reiterated that the SP was confident of forming the next government.

He refused to comment on the possibility of the SP looking for support from the Congress, in case it fell short of numbers in the final count.

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