Fear of SP conspiracy forced BJP, BSP's hand

Syed Firadus Ashraf in New Delhi

Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh Bhandari's alleged bias and an effort by the United Front government to form a Samajwadi Party government has resulted in the second marriage of convenience between the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Says BSP MP D P Yadav, "Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda had plans to form a Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh. And a revolt in the Uttar Pradesh Congress party two days back led us to take this decision."

In the 425-member UP assembly, the BJP is the single-largest party with 176 seats. The Samajwadi Party has 106 legislators, the BSP 67 and the Congress 41. The BJP-BSP alliance with 243 legislators have 22 members more than what is necessary to prove a simple majority.

The BSP, Yadav says, was convinced that that UP was being ruled by proxy by Mulayam Singh with Bhandari's help. "Bhandari and Mulayam's gameplan was to create a split in the BSP, BJP and Congress to form an SP government," Yadav told Rediff On The NeT. "So our party felt that we must go in an alliance with the BJP as it is the need of the hour."

After the UP assembly election resulted in a hung legislature, BSP supremo Kanshi Ram and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had several meetings to explore the possibility of working together, without success.

A meeting between both leaders on Monday, March 17, at the home of a close political friend of both men at Panchsheel park in South Delhi was where the arrangement was finalised.

"The decision was to be announced later but the developments in the UP Congress party when Pramod Tiwari, the Congress Legislature Party leader, was forcibly removed by the Jitendra Prasad group led us to believe that the United Front government could instigate a revolt in our party," adds Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, another BSP MP.

The first marriage of convenience between the BJP and BSP took place on June 3, 1994 when Mayawati became India's first dalit woman chief minister with the BJP's support. However, the BJP withdrew its support on October 16, 1994, resulting in the end of a four-and-a-half month honeymoon.

So was it easy for the BJP's central leadership to convince former chief minister Kalyan Singh who had threatened a revolt in the BJP's UP unit if they supported the BSP?

Says Yadav, "In politics there are no permanent friends and enemies. Kalyan Singh was convinced about the practical approach of having a rotating chief minister for six months. Moreover, our party convinced him that for the betterment of Uttar Pradesh, where 633 murders have taken place in January 1997, and to save it from the misrule of Governor Bhandari, it was a must to form an alliance government."

However, other sources in the BSP maintain that Kanshi Ram had no option but to form a coalition with the BJP. The BSP suffered a humiliating government in February's Punjab assembly election -- the party won only 3 out of the state's 117 seats.

Before last year's assembly election in UP, Kanshi Ram had said he was working with the Congress to defeat communal and castiest parties in Uttar Pradesh.

But with Kanshi Ram forming and breaking political alliances at will, the people of Uttar Pradesh must hope that this second marriage of convenience lasts longer than the first.