COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Kalyan's fate hangs by a slender thread

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Kalyan Singh's supporters are trying to reason with the party's leadership that any truck with the Bahujan Samaj Party would prove politically detrimental to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Much lobbying was witnessed in and around the chief minister's residence. And just as desperate attempts were being made in New Delhi to save the Vajpayee government -- even at the cost of sacrificing Kalyan Singh, as demanded by Mayawati -- in Lucknow too, Kalyan Singh's supporters were busy.

"With two terrible experiences that we have had in the past with the BSP, who cannot foresee the fate of yet another pact with that party and its leaders Mayawati or Kanshi Ram," remarked a Kalyan loyalist. He wants to know: "How would such an arrangement be any different from what was going on between our party and AIADMK? If Jayalalitha is asking for her pound of flesh, will Mayawati not put out her demands that would include withdrawal of all corruption cases registered against her by the Kalyan Singh government?"

Another legislator sought to know how the BJP would be able to keep its upper caste vote intact under the circumstances. "The upper caste BJP supporters had heaved a sigh of relief after Kalyan Singh snapped ties with her; and when Kalyan revoked the sweeping provisions of the Dalit Act, it was yet another respite for the harassed upper castes," he pointed out.

Besides demanding a prized position in the central government, Mayawati's direct interference in the day to day affairs of UP administration could also not be ruled out. A senior bureaucrat who had seen the high drama from close quarters during the Mayawati regime laments, "It was a tragedy that someone with just five MPs in the Lok Sabha and barely 49 MLAs in the state assembly was out to dictate terms to the largest party in both places."

Highly placed sources told Rediff On The NeT, "Apparently a deal had already been stuck between the BJP central leadership and the BSP." The sources maintained, "Perhaps Kalyan Singh's fate has been decided and it is only a matter of time, as the leaders in New Delhi are unable to arrive at a consensus on the question of a successor."

Mayawati had initially favoured Kalyan's replacement by Kalraj Misra, with whom she enjoyed much bon homie right from the time the BSP formed its first coalition government with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. However, when realisation dawned on the party's central leadership that Misra's appointment would send wrong signals, and that it would also be construed as taking sides in the on-going Kalyan-Kalraj war, the move was dropped. What also went against Kalraj was that he was a member of the Upper House and had never won a direct election.

That was followed by Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi's name, but a powerful BJP lobby under UP assembly Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi, got the move stalled on the plea that a backward class CM could not replaced with a brahmin. Of course, in the bargain, Tripathi has forfeited both Kalraj Misra's as well as his claim too.

BJP sources maintain that the party leadership is actively considering Union Minister of State for Petroleum Santosh Gangwar as Kalyan's successor because of his OBC background. But another source claimed that the name of UP Housing Minister Lalji Tandon was also under active consideration for two reasons -- he belonged to the neutral and non-controversial Khatri caste and also because he is known to be close to both Vajpayee and Mayawati. As chief minister, Mayawati had made him her rakhi brother.

Tell us what you think of this report