Mayawati who till the other day was the front runner for the post of chief minister, now seem out of the race. This follows the blunt refusal of SP president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, that he will not accept her at any cost. The BJP also appears to have ditched her, at least publicly, saying that they do not intend to extend support and they are now keen to form a government on their own.
BJP leaders yesterday held a series of meetings after the arrival of Atal Behari Vajpayee. The party stressed that being the largest party, the Governor should invite it to form the government.
This follows the partys attempts, so far in vain, to muster a majority. The number of independents who are stated to have caste their lot with the party is about five to nine.
BJP sources said they have won over at least half of the required 36 MLAs. Atal Bihari Vajpayee told journalists that all options are open, including support to, or an alliance with, the BSP. A BJP government was also not ruled out. But the stress of the party has shifted to the Governor inviting the BJP. Once installed as CM, Kalyan Singh could find it easier to cobble together a majority.
The SP seems to have taken a final stand on Mayawati -- that she is not acceptable. The Samajwadi party MLAs are under firm custody and are not easily accessible. SP sources point out that they have no objection if the Presidents rule continues. Once that happens, the BSP MLAs will start deserting the party to join the SP, the claim.
However, late in the evening there were reports that the SP camp has pressed its top political musclemen and MLAs like Shardanand Anchal, Shivpal Singh Yadav and Chandrapal Singh Yadav, into service to fetch non-SP MLAs. Their cars were roaming the streets of Lucknow. It was claimed that they have already bagged three BKKP MLAs and two independents. One of them was a Rasheed Masood nominee, who, in any case, would have joined the SP.
Observers to believe that Mulayam has jumped into the fray and is now trying to muster more MLAs so that in case of a break between the BSP and the Congress, the latter would side with the UF, and it will have more MLAs then the BJP. The combined strength of the UF and the Congress is about 167 and they need to have more then the BJP-Samata combinations 176.
More From This Section
The activity in the SP camp seems to have followed the imminent break in the Congress-BSP alliance, as exaggeratedly reported by an agency.
The Congress camp presented a different picture. Lokapati Tripathi rule out any support for the BJP. He was rumoured to have assured them support which was calculated between 11 to 15 congress MLAs. But he flatly denied having any possibility of truck with the BJP till they do not change their line.
However a Congress(T) leader said that their party and the Congress will be able to merge together in the next few days and they will do supplanting Mayawati as the candidate for the chief ministership.
The BKKP leader Jagat Singh denied that any of their MLAs have been approached either by the SP or by the BJP. This and they thought neither Mulayam nor Mayawati would be the chief minister and they thought that Ram Naresh Yadav would be a good .....chief minister.