The Hindu : Decision on U.P. after I return, says Vajpayee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 08, 2002

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Decision on U.P. after I return, says Vajpayee

By Neena Vyas

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, in discussion at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, on Sunday, prior to the former's departure to Singapore. The External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, is seen at the centre. — PTI

NEW DELHI APRIL 7. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today gave more than a hint that the Bharatiya Janata Party would decide on a political tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party to form a government in Uttar Pradesh after his return on April 11 from Singapore and Cambodia.

Sources in the BJP had earlier indicated that the parliamentary board of the party could meet after its three-day national executive meeting in Goa, which starts the day after the Prime Minister's return. If discussions on a political arrangement of power-sharing with the Bahujan Samaj Party could be sewn up over the next one week, then the parliamentary board could meet to review its earlier stand that the BJP had been given the mandate to sit in the opposition and it must do so.

"This will be discussed after I return,'' Mr. Vajpayee said when presspersons sought his comment on the consultations between the BJP and the BSP on government-formation in the State, which is currently under President's Rule. The Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, who enjoys a rapport with the BSP general secretary, Mayawati, and was reported to have met her recently, also indicated that a decision would be known "soon.''

The Uttar Pradesh BJP chief, Kalraj Mishra, said in Lucknow yesterday that there was no question of discussing the issue as the party's parliamentary board had decided that the BJP must sit in the opposition. But there have been reports, both from the BJP and the BSP camps, that some consultations are on.

Over the last one week, a string of leaders from the State had met Mr. Vajpayee and the BJP president, Jana Krishnamurthi. However, it was not known what exactly was discussed.

For the moment, both the BJP and the BSP are keeping their cards close to their chest. And that is to be expected as there is considerable resistance to a political arrangement between the two in both the parties.

In the BJP, a sizeable number of MPs and MLAs from the State feel that yet another coalition government with the BSP would prove fatal for the party as the already shaky upper caste Hindu vote support base of the BJP would move to the Congress if the BJP were to help Ms. Mayawati become Chief Minister for the third time. As for the BSP it has a large number of Muslim MLAs and after the recent happenings related to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Ayodhya and the violence against the minorities in Gujarat, they are certain to feel uneasy about a tie-up with a party which is being increasingly seen as anti-Muslim.

Mayawati stand

Ms. Mayawati was reported to have indicated in Lucknow today that she would reveal her cards at an "appropriate time'' but refused to say anything more at this juncture. But some of her supporters in the BSP have been saying that "there is no way out except for the BJP to support a Mayawati-led government.''

Perhaps the two factors which may finally help to bring the BJP and the BSP together once again, despite the gut feelings against such a venture in both the parties, are the need to prevent the Samajwadi Party from being invited to form a government and to prevent a situation in which another election becomes inevitable.

And that could happen if the fractured mandate yields no government and the Centre fails to get President's Rule ratified by Parliament, for which the last date is May 8.

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