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UP: How the battle was won
Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
What the Bharatiya Janata Party achieved in Uttar Pradesh this week is unprecedented in the party's history. The cadre conscious BJP -- known for spending more time in prolonged brainstorming sessions -- surprised political observers by the manner in which it defused the crisis caused by the Bahujan Samaj Party's decision to withdraw from the state government last Sunday.
And this time, it was not the party's governing trinity -- L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- who made the decisions in consultation with the BJP's parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. For a change, the entire show was masterminded by the party's UP leaders who not only worked out intricate strategies to vanquish their adversaries, but also maintained hushed silence about their plans.
The battle against all odds was fought by the unlikely trio of Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, state BJP president Raj Nath Singh and assembly Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi. For a change, the combine cut across caste lines and a new bondage was established purely on the basis of the fact that each of the three leaders enjoys a rare reputation for "honesty, integrity and forthrightness," as one observer put it.
Admitted a senior BJP leader, "It is true that we often get bogged down by caste considerations, but this time you can see how a backward Kalyan, a rajput Raj Nath and a brahmin Kesri Nath stuck together to take this battle of survival to its logical conclusion."
And that was the case right from the day when BSP supremo Kanshi Ram and then UP chief minister Mayawati suddenly put forth a demand for a change in the speakership. This, the BSP leaders said, was a precondition for a smooth transfer of power to the BJP under the six monthly rotational arrangement between the coalition partners. Since there was a BJP speaker with a BSP chief minister, the BSP leadership said it was only fair that a BSP speaker took charge along with a BJP chief minister.
The first rebuff for the BSP came from Kalyan Singh who told Mayawati, "Chief ministership or no chief ministership, we will not bow down before any unreasonable demand of the BSP, specially since it is being imposed now as a precondition for the transfer of power."
Tripathi too jumped into the fray, declaring, "I will not step down from the speaker's chair, to which I am entitled a full term."
The BSP leaders then opened fire at the speaker, insisting that as a BJP nominee, "Tripathi would help his party in the event of defections." As Kanshi Ram put it: "We want some precaution and safety."
Confronted by Kalyan Singh and Tripathi's resistance, the BSP leaders turned tail on
the demand that the speaker be changed. That was the BJP's first victory.
Then came the controversial government order issued the day after Kalyan SIngh became chief minister, to curb misuse of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Cruelties) Act (commonly known as the dalit act). Mayawati and Kanshi Ram were furious. Mayawati attacked Kalyan Singh as 'anti-dalit' and demanded to know, "why the misuse of the dalit act had been singled out when there were other laws like the Arms Act, Goonda Act and Gangsters Act, that are blatantly misused against the downtrodden dalit."
At a press conference, Mayawati described Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh as two sides of the same coin. Referring to the chief minister as "Kalyan Singh Yadav," she quipped, "there is no difference between Kalyan and Mulayam; both are equally anti-dalit." She appeared confident that her attack would force the BJP's central leadership to bring Kalyan Singh to heel. In Delhi, Kanshi Ram too asked the BJP's central leadership to ensure withdrawl of the controversial government order. Or else...
But Kalyan Singh was adamant. "There is no question of withdrawing the governemnt order," he declared, emphasising that the order could in no way be dubbed "anti-dalit." It only sought to prevent misuse of the law, he said, something Mayawati herself had made several references to during her term in office. Raj Nath Singh defended the chief minister and reminded Mayawati that she must reciprocate Kalyan Singh's gesture of not interfering in her administration.
Kanshi Ram and Mayawati took up the matter with the BJP's central leadership, where they found some support for their point of view. "Kalyan should have taken Mayawati into confidence before issuing such an order," some BJP leaders, not particularly fond of the UP chief minister, said.
Throughout its campaign against Kalyan Singh, the BSP secured tacit support from a section of the state BJP party. This faction led by PWD Minister Kalraj Misra backed the BSP demand that Kalyan Singh be replaced. A pliable Misra was
more acceptable to the BSP than the uncompromising and upright Kalyan Singh.
Matters moved swiftly after that. Mayawati concentrated on building a bigger case against Kalyan Singh. To complete her portrait of the chief minister as "anti-dalit", she accused him of "transferring dalit civil servants to insignificant positions".
A serious case of atrocities against dalits in Muzaffarnagar helped her buttress her argument. "This is the result of Kalyan Singh's order on the dalit act," she thundered. "The upper castes are encouraged to resume atrocities against the dalits."
Kalyan Singh was summoned to Delhi by Vajpayee, the main architect of the BJP-BSP alliance. The former prime minister had often advocated a soft line towards the BSP and even indicated his willingness to concede Kanshi Ram's demand for a state-level coordination committee, something which both Kalyan Singh and Raj Nath Singh vehemently opposed.
"When Mayawati was chief minister, she never spoke of forming a state-level coordination committee. Now that Kalyan Singh heads the government, she has come up with this unreasonable demand," an angry Raj Nath Singh then said.
Kalyan Singh went to Delhi with a detailed rebuttal to the BSP's charges against him. Vajpayee was convinced and soon after the chief minister's adversaries in the state BJP unit fell in line. On October 12, when the BJP-BSP national coordination committee comprising Advani, Vajpayee, Kanshi Ram and Mayawati met in New Delhi, in Kalyan Singh's presence, the BSP leaders backed down.
But three days later, on October 15, while staging pre-scheduled demonstrations against the GO on the dalit act at all district headquarters in UP, BSP leaders once again denounced Kalyan Singh and the BJP. Despite Kanshi Ram's assurance to the BJP's central leadership that no BSP minister would participate in the anti-Kalyan Singh demonstrations, R K Choudhary -- Mayawati's closest supporter in the UP cabinet -- stood by her side at the protest rally in Lucknow.
Raj Nath Singh was not the kind who would keep quiet on what he called the gross "impropriety against the concept of the cabinet's collective responsibility."
"If the BSP wants to pull out of the alliance, they are free to do so," he warned on October 16, "We will form a government on our own."
Two days later, 22 BSP ministers boycotted a crucial cabinet meeting which sent alarm bells ringing about a possible withdrawal of support. The previous day, Mayawati reportedly met Governor Romesh Bhandari, who, it is said, gave her an assurance that in such an event he would recommend dismissal of the Kalyan Singh government along with dissolution of the state assembly.
The day BSP ministers boycotted the cabinet meeting, Mayawati said rumours of a withdrawal of support were just that, rumours. But Kalyan Singh and Raj Nath Singh were in no mood to listen. They retorted by telling the BSP "enough is enough" And when the withdrawl of support came last Sunday, both Kalyan Singh and Raj Nath Singh came under fire from a section of their party who felt that "these two BJP leaders were responsible for provoking Mayawati."
The two men seemed isolated within their own party. Yet, unknown to many of their party colleagues, both men had already begun working on vulnerable BSP, Congress and Janata Dal legislators, some of whom had been in touch with them for some months now.
Many BJP leaders were, however, dismissive of the two leaders's claim that they would muster the 36 legislators needed to win Tuesday's vote of confidence in the state assembly. The BJP had 175 MLAs in the 425-member UP assembly and needed to reach the 213 mark to win the trust vote.
On Sunday night itself, both Kalyan Singh and Raj Nath Singh shut themselves in their homes, establishing telephonic contact with those legislators who mattered. By the next afternoon, they had obtained the support of 19 Congress legislators. Some hours later, three Janata Dal and three more Congress MLAs switched sides to the Kalyan Singh camp.
After the vote of confidence was won amidst much cain and violence, after the action had shifted to Delhi, Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh hurriedly arranged for two Sahara India Boeing 737s to fly all the 222 legislators who had voted for the BJP government to the Union capital. There, they staged a dharna outside Rashtrapati Bhavan even as Advani arranged to have them paraded before the President if the Cabinet did not reverse its decision to impose central rule in UP.
Impressed by the unusual pace at which the state's BJP leaders resolved the crisis, one young party leader quipped, "the old saying about the BJP -- 'BJP ke teen kaam, bhojhan, baithak aur vishram (the BJP is only interested in three things, food, discussion and rest)' is now a thing of the past."
EARLIER REPORTS:
Cabinet reverses UP decision
BSP withdraws from UP govt
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