The Hindu : Uneasy truce between BJP and BSP in U.P.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 16, 2003

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Uneasy truce between BJP and BSP in U.P.

By Neena Vyas

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in New Delhi on Saturday. — Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

NEW DELHI FEB. 15. Days and hours of discussions and meetings today led to an uneasy truce between the two ruling coalition partners in Uttar Pradesh, Bahujan Samaj Party and Bharatiya Janata Party, but not before the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, stepped in to say that both the parties must learn to trust each other.

The BJP apparently conceded the BSP complaint that the State BJP leaders were behaving as if they were in the Opposition and making all sorts of charges against the BSP Government headed by Mayawati. This must stop, Ms. Mayawati is believed to have said, and this the BJP promised.

The Chief Minister was at the residence of the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, for two hours this morning and was closeted with other BJP leaders, including the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, and the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, and party leaders from Uttar Pradesh. The venue then shifted to Mr. Vajpayee's residence where all the leaders and Ms. Mayawati discussed over lunch the issues that have become irritants in the smooth running of the State Government.

The only tangible decision taken at the meeting was that a group of three State leaders — the BJP State president, Vinay Katiyar, the `prabhari', Kalraj Mishra, and the BJP legislature party leader, Lalji Tandon — would meet Ms. Mayawati at least once a fortnight to discuss the State Government's policy issues, people's problems and the political situation.

However, Ms. Mayawati made it quite clear that she would not backtrack on the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act against the independent legislator, Raja Bhaiya, and his father — an issue that has been exercising the BJP leaders considerably as they feel it has affected their `Thakur' base. While they reportedly told her that POTA was meant to be used against terrorists alone, Ms. Mayawati had come prepared with a file on all the charges against Raja Bhaiya.

The day began with confabulations at Mr. Naidu's residence where Dr. Joshi as well as the three State-level leaders, Mr. Katiyar, Mr. Mishra and Mr. Tandon, were present. They then moved to Mr. Advani's residence where Ms. Mayawati joined them.

"We conveyed the feedback we had received from our State leaders to Ms. Mayawati,'' Mr. Naidu told reporters later describing the discussions as "very frank.''

At the end of the discussions, "we agreed that three of our State leaders will regularly interact with the Chief Minister, at least once a fortnight.'' He was confident that the new "informal arrangement (not a formal coordination committee) would help strengthen the Government and help in running it smoothly.''

The meeting also reviewed the numerical strength of the coalition and concluded that there was no danger to the Mayawati Government in the face of the no-confidence motion the Opposition is expected to move.

The truce was expected — Ms. Mayawati needs the BJP support to remain in office and the BJP wants a tie-up with the BSP for the Lok Sabha elections next year to boost its falling graph in Uttar Pradesh.

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