There was confusion in the United Front on the eve of debate, though. Several MPs, cutting across party lines, want Bhandari to be removed. Some UF leaders hope the BJP will not press for the vote, saving them from a major embarrassment.
There was even talk in BJP circles of withdrawing the motion, but party chief LK Advani told reporters the BSP had declared its support for the motion and his party was committed to it. He added, though, that the parliamentary wing would take a final decision.
Even some SP MPs want Bhandari to be removed and they are sore at the way their leader and Union defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has openly defended the Governor. Left leaders are also in a dilemma.
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They want the motion to be defeated but they also want to target the Governor for constitutional impropriety.
They say that there is no accountability in the state administration, development work has come to a halt and there is a general discontentment among the people against the Governor.
Added to this is the triangular fight between the Governor, the chief secretary and the DGP. All of them used to work in tandem till recently. With the Governor trying to make the chief secretary a scapegoat, the latter has also decided to fight back, a UF leader said.
Chief secretary Brajendra Sahay yesterday met cabinet secretary TSR Subramaniam and home secretary K Padmanabaiah.
He is learnt to have argued his case and said that how he had been made a scapegoat in the entire controversy.
Bhandari had written to Union home minister Indrajit Gupta, saying he was not aware of the the letter the chief secretary had written to the cabinet secretary about the law and order situation in the state. The Chief secretary later on contradicted it and said that he had conulted the governor before sending the letter and the letter was faxed from the Raj Bhawan itself.