M A I N   N E W S

HP stalemate continues
Prashant Sood
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 4
Dissatisfied and unhappy, the seven BJP rebels left the Capital today without conveying their response to the party high command over the latter’s directive to withdraw their statement against Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. They are, however, likely to attend the Budget session of the state Assembly tomorrow.

Nothing came off yesterday’s talks between the rebels and four senior state BJP leaders who had rushed to Delhi to find a way out of the crisis plaguing the state government. The rebels, including four former ministers, continued to insist on their two main demands of removing the Chief Minister and the party General Secretary, Mr Narendra Modi.

Not having received any definite assurance from the party high command on their demands, the rebels had marathon consultations among themselves over the course they should adopt.

Sources said though there was a strong feeling among the rebels against attending the Budget session till some assurance came on their demands, they also realised that no action would be taken by the high command in a hurry and their not attending the session would only precipitate matters with the opposition Congress already on the offensive.

There was also a feeling that the platform of the Vidhan Sabha could be used by the rebels to air their viewpoint. “While rebels would not do anything that brings down the BJP-HVC government, they could still make their points about alleged corruption,” a leader close to the rebels said. While helping the rebels in getting rid of the accusation that they were posing a threat to the government, they could also be seen as being magnanimous.

Apart from the threat of disciplinary action that not attending the session could entail, some rebels felt that any discussion on their demands would happen only after the session and little would be achieved by remaining out. The sources, however, said one of the rebels was strongly against attending the session saying that such a course would take away the initiative from their hands and could prolong their issues indefinitely.