BJP, Congress rush to wish Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati was the star political attraction when Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naquvi rushed to greet her on her 47th birthday.

Gandhi paid a visit to the BSP chief and former UP chief minister in a sequel to her efforts to find "like-minded allies" to forge a secular coalition against the BJP.

Though Mayawati maintained that Gandhi's visit should not be seen with the political prism, both the leaders confabulated for a long time to decide the contours of the possible alliance.

Sources in the Congress maintain that given the dubious political conduct of UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, Gandhi is in favour of striking an alliance with the BSP to consolidate the party's position in certain parts of UP. What appears to be in favour of the possibility of the Congress-BSP alliance is suspicion nursed against the BJP by Mayawati.

However, in a move to create confusion in the political climate, the BJP leadership has directed general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naquvi to visit Mayawati and congratulate her on behalf of the party on the occasion of her birth anniversary. Naquvi met Mayawati but maintained that meeting had nothing to do with the politics.

However, Naquvi's meeting with the BSP chief has also created confusion within the BJP's ranks in Uttar Pradesh where the party's state unit is in favour of re-inducting estranged "hero of Ayodhya" Kalyan Singh within the party's fold.

Singh's re-entry has been resisted by many senior party leaders who feel that such a compromise would give rise to the indiscipline.

Though Naquvi is considered to be much junior leader to be assigned with the task of forging an alliance with the BSP, his meeting with Mayawati is seen as a move by the party's central leadership to put across positive signals to Mayawati.

BJP sources here say that the party's central leadership is not averse to the idea of forging a BJP-BSP alliance in the Lok Sabha elections if Mayawati conceded the position that the BJP will be given more seats than the BSP in 80 Lok Sabha seats of the state.