The Hindu : BJP nod for Mayawati Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 28, 2002

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BJP nod for Mayawati Govt.

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI APRIL 27. The Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary board gave its stamp of approval this evening to a power-sharing agreement with the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh paving the way for the installation of Mayawati as the State Chief Minister, possibly by Monday, a day ahead of the crucial discussion in the Lok Sabha on the Gujarat situation under a substantive motion.

The BJP's decision followed a two-hour meeting this morning between top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP leaders at the residence of the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, where the entire gamut of political issues was reportedly discussed, especially the Gujarat situation in all its ramifications and the possible political fallout of the tie-up with the BSP in Uttar Pradesh.

The meeting was attended by the RSS chief, K.S. Sudarshan, and top RSS leaders, H.V.Seshadiri and Madan Das Devi. Besides the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, the party president, Jana Krishnamurthi, the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, and the former party president, Kushabhau Thakre, were present.

This was the first such meeting between RSS and BJP leaders after the Godhra carnage and the Gujarat violence and the first formal consultations on Uttar Pradesh.

Mr. Krishnamurthi described the meeting as a "general discussion'' where a "free exchange of views took place'' and added that this type of meeting could not be held earlier as "all of us had been busy.''

However, various aspects of the Gujarat violence were discussed against the background of the demand for the ouster of the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, (a demand also embarrassingly articulated by "friendly parties'' like the Telugu Desam and the Trinamool Congress), and the direct allegations being made against Sangh Parivar organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal for their "lead role" in the violence that followed Godhra.

The growing number of critical voices from foreign countries and its direct impact on India's post-September 11 diplomacy was also reportedly discussed.

Although a reversal of the parliamentary board's earlier decision on Uttar Pradesh directing the party to sit in the Opposition was a foregone conclusion, the meeting between the RSS brass and the top BJP leadership was an opportunity to discuss the likely fallout of the new decision, an alienation of the upper castes from the BJP. It seems that the RSS-BJP meeting discussed a strategy to contain this by "uniting Hindus'' through the Hindutva ideology.

The party's U.P. leaders — Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra and Lalji Tandon — were special invitees to the meeting in the evening.

Coming out of the meeting, Mr. Krishnamurthi said it had been decided to "join hands with the BSP along with our allies'' to form a Government in Uttar Pradesh and "Ms. Mayawati will be Chief Minister.''

There are indications that Ms. Mayawati will meet the U.P. Governor tomorrow in Lucknow to stake her claim, and in all likelihood she will take her oath of office on Monday. In return, the BSP has promised to vote against the Opposition-sponsored motion on Gujarat to be debated in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

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