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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
With the Bhartiya Janata Party adopting a tough stance on the rebels, some of its legislators who were in the forefront of the current rebellion are likely to get axed soon.
Having manipulated its way to a smooth sail in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections, the party leadership had now made up its mind to teach the dissidents a lesson.
This became amply visible when Lalji Tandon, BJP leader in the state legislative assembly initiated disciplinary proceedings against 10 MLAs on Monday evening.
These 10 MLAs had proposed the nomination of Suresh Nanda, the Delhi based arms dealer, as an independent in the Rajya Sabha biennial poll.
In a complaint to assembly speaker Keshri Nath Tripathi, Tandon had charged these ten MLAs of violating the anti-defection law, thereby inviting disqualification as member of the house.
In his capacity as BJP legislature party chief, Tandon had made it clear "the insolent act of the dissidents was unpardonable; they will have to pay for their defiance."
Tandon initiated the move even after the dissidents had agreed to have a word with Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Tuesday.
But no sooner did the rebels realise that Tandon was in a vindictive mood and was preparing himself for assault, they dropped their plans of going over to Delhi for talks with the party superiors.
"What is the point in going to Delhi for talks with higher ups when Lalji Tandon had already declared war against us," Ramasheesh Rai, spokesman of the dissidents group told rediff.com
Evidently, Tandon had one main objective in mind -- to kill two birds with one stone . Disqualification of the ten MLAs would not only bring the ruling BSP-BJP coalition in a more comfortable majority in the thereby reduced strength of the 403- member house, but more importantly, it would prevent the defeat of the coalition's official nominee in the forthcoming poll to the Vidhan Parishad [state legislative council] where the rebels had fielded their own nominee, Yashwant Singh.
"Once the ten dissidents were disqualified, the nomination of Yashwant Singh would automatically get rejected, thereby ensuring a smooth sail for the official nominee Munna Singh who belongs to the Rashtriya Lok Dal, a partner in the ruling coalition," a senior BJP leader said.
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