Fear of Mulayam's proxy rule forces BSP to relent

The crisis facing the Bharatiya Janata Party-Bahujan Samaj Party coalition in Uttar Pradesh was resolved on Sunday, with the latter agreeing to drop its demand for the assembly speaker's post.

Though the official version has it that the BSP climbdown stems from the BJP's assurance that no defections would be organised, the real reason lies in the six-month-old alliance's origin itself -- fear of Union Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's de facto rule in Uttar Pradesh. The reason now is no different.

The tough stand taken by several BJP leaders like chief minister-in-waiting Kalyan Singh and state unit president Raj Nath Singh forced BSP supremo Kanshi Ram and Chief Minister Mayawati to see the writing on the wall earlier -- the state would head for another round of President's (rather Mulayam) rule if the alliance breaks.

Drilling this message into Mayawati was her ''inner coterie'' of top bureaucrats. Sources said the officials convinced her that even if Governor Romesh Bhandari allows her to run a caretaker government -- as he had hinted -- after dissolving the house, the defence minister would still hold the remote control.

Adding to Mayawati's woes were the defence minister's announcements that he would ''undo her misdeeds'' and order a high-level probe into the ''rampant corruption during her regime''.

Despite this, the BJP leadership is still not sure if Kalyan Singh will have a smooth sail after he takes over as chief minister on September 21. Political pundits do not rule out Mayawati's routine pinpricks in his day-to-day functioning.

Allocating key portfolios to her men, Mayawati has already started insisting that the top civil servants, including the chief secretary and several secretaries, appointed by her should not be disturbed.

Sources said the idea was to ensure that these ''lucrative'' posts would continue to fill the BSP's coffers.

Now, if Kalyan Singh concedes such demands, it is anybody's guess what would happen to his image of a forthright and no-nonsense chief minister? And if he does not give in, he would have enough trouble. How he would get out of this difficult situation, only time would tell.

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