The Hindu : Crisis as 8 independent MLAs withdraw support to U.P. Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 26, 2002

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Crisis as 8 independent MLAs withdraw support to U.P. Govt.

Lucknow Oct. 25. The BSP-BJP coalition government in Uttar Pradesh tonight faced a crisis with eight independent MLAs withdrawing support, bringing its majority in the Legislative Assembly down to a wafer-thin margin.

As the BJP cracked the whip and suspended the key dissident legislator, Ramasish Rai, MLC, eight independent MLAs, who had been backing the Mayawati Government, tonight met the Governor, Vishnu Kant Shastri, under the leadership of Raghuraj Pratap Singh and handed over to him a letter withdrawing their support. After today's developments, the ruling coalition is left with a strength of 206, just three more than the halfway mark in a House of 403.

Mr. Singh said the Governor told them that if necessary he would summon a special session of the Assembly after assessing the situation. As the dramatic developments unfolded in Lucknow, the Samajwadi Party general secretary, Amar Singh, said in New Delhi that the party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the CPI(M) general Secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, ``may meet'' the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, to elicit her party's support for a possible alternative Government in Uttar Pradesh.

``I am already in touch with Congress leaders Natwar Singh and Kamal Nath and will meet Motilal Vora tomorrow,'' he said adding that a request for an appointment with Ms. Gandhi had been left at her 10 Janpath residence.

Today's events capped week-long rumblings in the BJP legislature party following the Cabinet expansion undertaken by Ms. Mayawati.

The BJP legislators who could not make it to the Ministry and those who did not get plum portfolios raised the banner of protest and were even refused audience by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was in Lucknow last Sunday.

Asked if the dissidents would take the support of the SP, Mr. Rai, a member of the Legislative Council and spokesman of the ``Save BJP Committee'' formed by the rebels, said that ``if the SP lends us a helping hand, we will respond positively.''

Contradicting Mr. Amar Singh, the U.P. BJP president, Vinay Katiyar, claimed that there was no threat to the Mayawati Government which enjoyed the support of 214 MLAs.

However, another senior BJP leader, Lalji Tandon, said that if something more happened on these lines (independent MLAs withdrawing support) ``then the State will move towards a mid-term poll.'' — PTI

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