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No move to replace Gupta, clarifies BJP

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta will not be replaced because the state has a "complex" political situation that needs time to tackle.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president K Jana Krishnamoorthy clarified this to reporters today at an impromptu press conference at the party headquarters.

Sanghapriya Gautam, party general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, had raised a storm yesterday by asserting that Gupta would be removed for having failed to tackle the political situation in the state "according to our expectations".

"We don't think Chief Minister Gupta will be changed. He has assumed office only a few months ago and since Uttar Pradesh is a complex state, he needs more time to tackle the political situation," Krishnamoorthy said. He said he did not know in what context Gautam had made his assertion. "We have full faith in the chief minister," he added.

Krishnamoorthy stressed that there was no comparison between the present developments and the events immediately preceding the expulsion of former chief minister Kalyan Singh.

Gautam had similarly lashed out at Singh when he had raised the banner of revolt against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Krishnamoorthy said the chief minister would fulfil his constitutional obligation and get elected to the state assembly or council soon. Gupta has to become a member of one of the two Houses of the state legislature within six months of taking office as chief minister.

He added that Gautam's anti-Gupta statement was not likely to damage the party's image.

But indiscipline in the saffron party seems to be on the rise. The BJP had to issue another statement today saying it had asked Rajya Sabha member Dilip Singh Judeo to immediately withdraw his controversial assertion that he would arrange for the defence of Dara Singh, prime accused in the murders of Graham Staines and his two sons.

The BJP statement pointed out that Judeo had made the statement in his "personal capacity". But it added, "This statement has been issued contrary to the known stand of the party as the party has been urging that the assassin must be arrested and punished through due process of law. Therefore, the national president of the party, Shri Kushabhau Thakre, has directed Dilip Singh Judev to withdraw his statement immediately."

Another BJP vice-president, who did not wished to be identified, said the Gautam and Judeo matters had "engaged" the party leadership's attention on the "current trend" of party politicians "speaking out of turn".

He said the central leadership would look into Gautam's statement against Chief Minister Gupta "and get to the heart of the matter". He did not elaborate.

A senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist, who is mostly ensconced in the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, asserted that "there is no question of removing Guptaji as chief minister because he enjoys the all-round patronage of our organisation".

He indicated that "vested interests in the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP" were trying to "test" the chief minister by making statements against him. But since Gupta is an old RSS hand, the central party leadership sprang to his defence, he pointed out.

A Trinamul Congress Member of Parliament said Judeo's statement about defending Dara Singh would be the "last straw" for his party, which is an important member of the ruling National Democratic Alliance. His party's leadership categorically told the BJP that it would tolerate no such act. The MP underscored that party president Mamata Banerjee warned that thousands of her supporters from the Christian community in West Bengal were agitated by Judeo's statement and she could not be party to any move by the BJP-led government that would hurt her support base. Some other allies like the Samata Party and the Telugu Desam Party had also expressed their resentment, he said.

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