The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, March 8, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Cabinet for Central rule
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 7
The Union Cabinet today recommended imposition of President’s rule in Uttar Pradesh and keeping the state Assembly under suspended animation as advocated by Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri, a move which will put an end to the political intrigues.

The biggest problem before the Vajpayee government would be that after the state is brought under President’s rule for the ninth time, it would have to get the move ratified by both Houses of Parliament within two months, political sources said.

The Congress and the Samajwadi Party today stiffly opposed the Union Cabinet decision and made it clear that they would take on the government on the issue in and outside Parliament and would not allow it to be passed in the Rajya Sabha where the Opposition is in a majority.

Political observers said the bitter memories of Bihar should still be fresh in the minds of top leaders of the Vajpayee government and said the attitude of the Congress would be crucial in the UP imbroglio. The BJP and the Congress, they pointed out, had one thing in common as far as UP was concerned: their hatred against SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Both parties are, as of now, firmly against a government in UP headed by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Focus would be on two questions in the coming weeks of political turbulence in UP:

* What stand the Congress would take on government formation as the Union Cabinet has also decided to keep the state Assembly in suspended animation ?

* Will the BJP agree to a Bahujan Samaj Party-led government with its support, whether from inside or outside?

By resigning from the Lok Sabha today, BSP leader Mayawati has made it amply clear that her attention is riveted on UP and she would not accept anybody as Chief Minister but herself.

Sources said there were sharp differences within the BJP on whether to sit in the Opposition (by implication allowing Samajwadi Party a chance to form the government) or whether support the BSP initially from outside and withdraw support after a few months on a politically suitable cause.

Mayawati resigns from LS
Hints at new alignments in UP
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 7
The BSP leader, Ms Mayawati, today gave enough indications of possible new alignments in UP when she chose to quit her Lok Sabha seat in preference to the state Legislative Assembly seat.

She asserted that the BSP would make every attempt to form a government in UP and also welcomed the move for the imposition of President’s rule in the state. The move would also give her a chance to carry out negotiations with the BJP, the only party which can lend support to the party in government formation.

Indications of new alignments were also available from the fact that Ms Mayawati and her mentor Kanshi Ram did not criticise the government on issues like Gujarat and Ayodhya. The party MPs later also did not form part of the dharna organised by the Opposition parties at the main gate of Parliament to protest on the two issues.

Ms Mayawati and Mr Kanshi Ram parried questions about seeking its support to form the government.

Ms Mayawati, who was elected from two Assembly constituencies in UP met Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed and gave her resignation from Akbarpur (Reserved) seat. Explaining the reasons for her resignation, Mr Kanshi Ram said the party needed a leadership in UP and some other states.

Ms Mayawati parried questions on whether the BSP was seeking BJP’s support for forming the government saying that “I do not want to say anything now. I will do so at a proper time. We will not reveal our cards now.”

But she made the party’s opposition to the Samajwadi Party clear and ruled out seeking its support or extending support to it.

“If a BSP government cannot be formed in UP, then no other party can do so”, she said.

Both leaders described as “proper” the recommendation of Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri for the imposition of President’s rule.

She, however, made it clear that in any case her party would neither seek the support of the Samajwadi Party nor extend support to it in the formation of the next government.

Asked whether the BSP shared the Opposition’s view that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should be dismissed and President’s rule should be imposed on the state, she said her party would take a decision only after a high-level committee was constituted to probe the matter and submitted its findings.

Mr Kanshi Ram said the BSP had emerged as the second largest party in the state with 98 MLAs, he said, adding that as many as 110 party candidates had finished second. This, he said, showed that the BSP could form government on its own on if fresh elections were held.

He said the party asked Ms Mayawati to resign from the Lok Sabha as it felt that she needed to lead the party in UP.

Mr Kanshi Ram dismissed suggestions that the BSP Legislature Party in UP could undergo a split, saying that the party leadership had already held consultations with its MLAs and did not foresee such a possibility.

At the same time, he said his party was against engineering defections in other parties, including the SP. “The MLAs can come on their own and support us”.

Ms Mayawati, who had earlier been elected as the BSP Legislature Party leader in UP, said she had convened a meeting in Lucknow on March 9 of MLAs, MLCs and MPs from the state as also 10,000 prominent party workers where the future strategy of the party would be decided.

On Ayodhya, she said the party favoured waiting for the court judgement.