The prospects of a long-term understanding between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have brightened after Friday's meeting between former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and BSP chief Kanshi Ram, senior BJP leaders said yesterday.
Both Vajpayee and Kanshi Ram discussed issues ranging from government formation in UP to the possibility of a BJP-BSP alliance in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, they said. The fact that Vajpayee and Kanshi Ram decided to meet again further pointed to the possibility of a long-term understanding between the two parties.
Vajpayee and Ram are likely to have two more rounds of meeting to explore areas of agreement between the BSP and the BJP. One of these could take place in Punjab as both Ram and Vajpayee are expected to visit the state in January for campaigning. This was a part of the informal understanding reached between the two leaders at the inconclusive meeting at Friday, a BJP office-bearer said.
At the meeting, both Vajpayee and Ram maintained stands of their respective parties, with the former insisting on a BSP-BJP coalition government in UP and the latter stressing on the BJP's outside support to the BSP, the BJP office-bearer said.
However, both decided to meet and to reassess their respective positions afresh. Kanshi Ram is understood to have told Vajpayee that the former would take his party colleagues' opinion also before the second round of meeting.
Vajpayee and Ram are understood to have discussed the possibility of Mulayam Singh Yadav staking claim to form government in case the Congress and the Samajwadi Party joining hands in UP.
