Opposition unites to topple Mayawati

The Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh is seeing the first serious challenge being mounted by the opposition to topple the year-old coalition government in Uttar Pradesh, marked yesterday by a call to Muslim lawmakers of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to break away from the party.

Senior leaders of the combined opposition, namely the Samajwadi Party, the Congress party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the Rashtriya Kranti Party (RKP) are set to hold talks on Thursday to chart their next course of action and up the ante in dislodging the government led by the head of the BSP, Chief Minister Maywati.

The RLD chief Ajit Singh's decision to throw his weight behind the opposition after pulling out of the Mayawati government following his unceremonious ouster from the BJP-led federal government has given a boost to the opposition bid to overthrow the Mayawati-BJP combine from power.

Realising that their combined strength is still at least 15 short of the requisite number in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh state assembly, the focus is firmly on the success of Kalyan Singh and the Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh in breaking the Mayawati government.

While Kalyan Singh, a former state chief minister expelled from the BJP two years ago, is wooing dissidents in the BJP, Amar Singh, a known power-broker is busy working on nine independent lawmakers, utilising Mayawati's absence from the scene. She is on a 18-day five-nation tour abroad.

"Over one-third of the BJP's lawmakers are in touch with me right now. They have always been opposed to being part of the Mayawati government and feel the time has come for them to stand up and be counted. I am convinced that the countdown for the downfall of the Mayawati government has started," Kalyan Singh told Gulf News on the phone yesterday.

According to him, the disgruntled BJP legislators are the same who had raised the banner of revolt over the BJP's support to Mayawati last October. "Their numbers have increased now," he said.

Even as attempts are being made by the opposition to poach on the BJP's 87 lawmakers, senior party leaders are merely issuing statements that there is no danger to the Mayawati government while initiating no move to keep their party legislators together, giving rise to strong speculation that the party may be keen on using the political turmoil in the state to cut its links with the BSP.

Speculation is already rife that the BJP may even spring a surprise and pull out of the government, preferring a snap poll in the state to a split in its ranks.

But for the time being all known Mayawati baiters in the BJP, like the state unit chief Vinay Katiyar and federal Agriculture Minister insist the Mayawati government is safe and will complete its full five-year term in the office.

"This move, like their earlier moves, will also fizzle out because we have enough numbers," Urban Development Minister and BJP legislative party chief Lalji Tandon has been quoted as saying.

According to senior BJP sources here, it is Ajit Singh's RLD that is faced with a real threat of a vertical split. Nine out of the RLD's 13 lawmakers are currently in the Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh to avoid any poaching by Mayawati.