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BJP fears Mayawati may seek dissolution of House

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI AUG. 24. The BJP is fearing that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, may recommend dissolution of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly to the State Governor "any time'' before the start of the House session and it has taken steps to prevent this.

Highly-placed sources in the BJP said today that the party's State leaders who met the Governor, Vishnu Kant Shastri, in Lucknow last night, had in fact requested him not to take a decision in a hurry if such a recommendation was made by Ms. Mayawati. Her calling an urgent Cabinet meeting on Monday morning fuelled speculation that she was about to take some drastic step.

Party leaders here are arguing that although a Governor is bound by a recommendation for dissolution from a Chief Minister enjoying a majority, the fact was that in Uttar Pradesh, Ms. Mayawati enjoyed a majority only with the support of the BJP and its leaders were totally against pushing the State into an election.

That was what was apparently conveyed to Mr. Shastri when the BJP's four State leaders — Lalji Tandon, Kalraj Mishra, Vinay Katiyar and Om Prakash Singh — met the Governor.

The party here is beginning to believe that after the Supreme Court directive to the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Taj Heritage project controversy, Ms. Mayawati's Government is beginning to look shaky. On August 21, the Court directed the CBI to interrogate "four or five mighty persons'' in the Government mentioned in the CBI's confidential interim report.

At this juncture, the BJP would not like to face elections in Uttar Pradesh. In the past, when the BJP was faced with rebellion in its own ranks in the State, Ms. Mayawati had hinted that if the BJP, her coalition partner, was not able to tackle its internal problems, she would not hesitate to dissolve the Assembly and go in for fresh elections.

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