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The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday night suspended Ganga Bhakt Singh, the leader of the dissident legislators who have virtually brought the Mayawati-led government in Uttar Pradesh to the brink of collapse.
"After much deliberation, we have decided to suspend Ganga Bhakt Singhji for his anti-party activities," state BJP chief Vinay Katiyar said in Lucknow.
"It was a painful decision to suspend Ganga Bhakt Singh, who was among our seniormost leaders. But despite our best efforts he refused to end activities that were against the larger interest of the party," he said.
The dissidents seemed to be unfazed by the move. They added yet another demand to their list by asking for the removal of Lalji Tandon from the post of leader of the BJP in the assembly.
They feel it was because of Tandon that several aspirants were denied a berth during the recent Cabinet expansion.
They also wanted the high command to pull out BJP ministers from the government.
"If it is extremely necessary to maintain the continuity of the present government, then the BJP should support it only from outside," Ramasheesh Rai, the spokesman of the dissident group, said at the end of a series of daylong deliberations.
"As many as 29 MLAs and 5 MLCs attended today's meeting," he claimed
"What could be more disgusting than getting the news of the suspension of a senior leader like Ganga Bhakt Singh while we were holding a meeting to decide on the proposal for an audience with the prime minister [Atal Bihari Vajpayee]," he said.
Ganga Bhakt Singh is a four-time MLA. He first became a minister in the Charan Singh-led coalition government in 1967. In 1977 he became a Lok Sabha member. Later, he was a minister in the Kalyan Singh government in UP.
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