The Hindu : Coalition govt. has its limitations: Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 27, 2003

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National

Coalition govt. has its limitations: Advani

Kanpur April 26. In an indication that the Bharatiya Janata Party has no immediate plans to rock the BSP-BJP boat in Uttar Pradesh, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today spoke of the "limitations" in a coalition government and asked his partymen in the State to first set their house in order.

"A coalition government has its own limitations. But our people should prove themselves with their work", Mr. Advani told reporters after a closed-door meeting with BJP Ministers in the Mayawati Government in the wake of strained relations between the two alliance partners.

He said there was a "mixed feeling" in the party over aligning with the BSP, but made it clear that the decision was taken jointly by the party's Central and State leadership. "If there is a review on this, it has to be done jointly".

Reviewing the state of affairs in the State, where the coalition government is completing one year in office on May 3, Mr. Advani sought to know how much work the party Ministers had done and their accessibility to the party workers.

Downplaying a suggestion that the BJP might suffer due to the alignment with the BSP, he said everybody would have to face the anti-incumbency factor, but the BJP Ministers should function in such a way that they should not be blamed and be disciplined as it was a party with a difference.

Mr. Advani's meeting with the State BJP leaders assumes significance, as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, would be meeting him in New Delhi tomorrow. He, however, said the meeting was to discuss the sugarcane problem.

He brushed aside reports of attempts to bring back the former Chief Minister, Kalyan Singh, into the party fold. "I have also seen it in the newspapers", he said.

PTI

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