NEW DELHI: The 18monthold Mulayam Singh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh was dismissed on June 3, by the state governor, Motilal Vora, who invited Ms. Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to form the government on the basis of support extended to her by the Bharativa Janata Party (BJP).

Ms. Mayawati, who was expected to be swom in late on Friday night, will be the state’s first Harijan chief minister. The governor has given her 15 days to prove her majority on the floor Of the house, She will be the second woman to rule the state.

The dismissal of the Yadav government and the invitation extended to Ms. Mayawati marked a climax to the dramatic developments in the state triggered off by the BSP’s decision to break its coalition with the Samajwadi Party. In the process, Mr. Vora rejected ‘Yadav’s request that he be allowed to prove his majority on the floor of the House on July 8, Although the BSP’s decision to pull out of the coalition had reduced his government to a minority, the dismissed chief minister refused to resign, claiming that he continued to enjoy the support of the majority in the state Assembly.

To recoup lost ground, Yadav is reported to have employed questionable means to engineer defections from the BSP. He did succeed in weaning away 25 BSP legislators, with the speaker of the UP Assembly, Dhaniram Verma, promptly recognizing the splinter faction as a separate legislative entity. However, this still not bring Yadav anywhere near the magic 213 mark in the 425member state Assembly.

While Yadav’s dismissal, especially after he failed to make much headway in cobbling together a majority, had seemed a foregone conclusion, what has come as a surprise is the timing of the governor’s action, No one really expected him to accede to Yadav’s request that he be given time till July 8, but there were indications that the dismissed chief minister would be given at least a week’s time to prove his claim, Further, political observers felt that Vora would at least await the outcome of the deliberations of the ‘Congress Working Committee, which on Saturday night was still engrossed in discussions on the political crisis in Uttar Pradesh,

Moreover, it was expected that the Central government would be somewhat indulgent towards the ousted chief minister. With general elections less than a year away, many senior Congress (I) leaders were hoping to strike a deal with Yadav, whereby he would bail the party out if it failed to get a majority in the Lok Sabha.

However, what seems to have forced the hands of the Center was the strong. opposition from almost all senior party leaders and Central ministers belonging to Uttar Pradesh to the idea of having any tuck with Yadav. New Delhi is also said to have been concerned over reports of deteriorating law and order in the state capital.

This is the second time that Yadav has failed to complete his five-year term. He first became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1989. However, soon enough a number of factors forced him to recommend the dissolution of the House and seek fresh elections. The gamot railed disastrously and he had to spend the next two years in political oblivion. But then he pulled off a phoenix like act, confounding even his worst detractors, when he in alliance with the BSP defeated the odds on favorite, the BJP, in the 1993 elections to the State Assembly, For the BJP, the rupture in the Samajwadi Party’s alliance with the BSP and the downfall of its be tenure, Yadav, has come as a godsend. Thus, getting Yadav out of the way was high on the BJP’s agenda, inspiring it to strike what is being called an “unprincipled alliance,” with the BSP.

 

 

Article extracted from this publication >>   June 9, 1995