The United Front (UF) is working out a formula to resolve the imbroglio arising out of the demand for Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh Bhandaris recall and his subsequent effort to sack state chief secretary Brijendra Sahai, sources said.
According to the plan, Bhandari will relinquish charge along with the chief secretary and director-general of police (DGP) Haridas Rao, though the timing of their exit is yet to be decided.
Forced by the firm stand taken by the Communist Party of India (CPI), one of the UF constituents, the three would have resigned, but for the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) move in Parliament on the issue, the sources said. The UF wants to first overcome the BJP challenge under Section 184 before deciding the timing of the Governor and his top officials exit.
According to the sources, Bhandari and his top administrators may be removed after the current session of Parliament ends in May.
Defence minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has relented on this count, the sources added.
A number of political parties, both within and outside the UF, have been opposing Bhandaris continuation on the ground of poor governance and declining law and order situation in the state.
On his part, the Governor wanted to sack his chief secretary for writing directly to the Union cabinet secretary on the situation in the state. Bhandari made the chief secretarys position untenable by publicly stating that Sahai wrote the letter without the Governors permission.
The chief secretary said that the report was sought by the Union cabinet secretary.
In fact, it was Yadav who thwarted Bhandaris attempt to sack the chief secretary, the sources said and added that Sahai, too, is the defence ministers protege. Though Sahais successor had been chosen, his removal was stopped at the last moment at Yadavs insistence and the government issued a statement on Thursday saying that the chief secretary was not being shifted. According to the sources, Bhandaris successor has yet to be decided by the UF. The sources said that besides the CPI, it was also the pressure from the Congress which led to the decision on the removal.
Under state Congress chief Jitendra Prasada, most of the partys district unit presidents and most of the legislators want Bhandaris ouster. There is also a great deal of support for this demand from the partys grassroots level. As a result, the state unit has been able to exert a lot of pressure on party chief Sitaram Kesari on this count.
Although some partymen like Ammar Rizvi hold that any stand against Bhandari will help the BJP, it has failed to cut ice with the majority of the party workers who have been complaining of being harassment by the police.
The UF is also believed to have decided to hold the elections in the state in the next six months as no viable combination is emerging to form the government. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Kanshi Ram has not yet changed his stand on forming government with the BJP. The Congress does not propose to side with the Samajwadi Party either.
