NEW DELHI: Having failed in its efforts to win over MLAs belonging to other parties as well as independents, the BJP has once again turned to the Bahujan Samaj Party for foiling the United Front’s bid to capture power in Uttar Pradesh. Making good its threat to “shake hands even with the devil” for keeping Mulayam Singh Yadav out, the BJP has opened a new channels of communication with the BSP leadership with Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal playing the facilitator this time. The party, which is angry over the re imposition’ of President’s mule, has also shelved its earlier stand for keeping the post of chief minister ship for its leader Kalyan Singh and has agreed to offer it to BSP leader Mayawati.

However, to appease Kalyan Singh who is not at all enamored of Ms. Mayawati and would, left to himself, prefer to sit in the Opposition rather than let the BSP leader get a second stint as the chief minister, the party proposes to offer to him the chairmanship of a presidium that is proposed to be created for overseeing the liaison between the two outfits. The party has also demanded three forth of the cabinet posts as well as a same number of representatives in the proposed presidium. Headway is yet to be made. But this time on, the feelers to the BSP leadership appeared to be much more serious than they were in the first instance and flies in the face of the critical utterances that Ms. Sushma Swaraj had made from the party platform.

Incidentally, the renewal for the efforts to court the BSP coincided with RSS chief Rajendra Singh’s public lament at Nagpur today during his customary Dusshera address over the vote bank politics of the ‘casteist’ outfits in Uttar Pradesh. Party MP Jagmohan, who was the chief guest on the occasion, too, shared the Sangh chief’s distress, If this as well as the willingness of the party to attempt doing something which is not too the liking of Mr. Kalyan Singh demonstrates both its pique as well as determination to come to power in Uttar Pradesh, it is bound to put a spoke in the works of the United Front. Analysts appear to be convinced that the imposition of President’s rule was just a ploy to facilitate Mulayam Singh Yadav plan to rustle up the necessary numbers.

 

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 23, 1996