The Hindu : Opposition leaders meeting today to review situation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 08, 2003

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Other States - Uttar Pradesh

Opposition leaders meeting today to review situation

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI JUNE 7. The Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, its general secretary, Amar Singh, the Rashtriya Lok Dal Chief, Ajit Singh, the Rashtriya Kranti Party leader, Kalyan Singh, and a representative of the Congress will meet here tomorrow to chalk out their strategy to oust the Mayawati Government in Uttar Pradesh.

This is the first time these party leaders are meeting after they submitted a joint memorandum to the Governor, Vishnu Kant Shastri, on May 30 asking him to either dismiss the State Government or call upon the Chief Minister, Mayawati, to prove her majority on the floor of the House after the withdrawal of RLD support.

Behind the scene activity is on to wean away the BJP dissidents who had almost left the party. If the Opposition is not provided with an opportunity to force a vote on the floor of the House, then there is likelihood of outright political harakiri by the simmering BJP MLAs forcing a mid-term poll.

Sources indicated that the meeting was meant to send out a signal to the MLAs to not be "terror-stricken in Maya raj" and also to drive home the point that none of the parties concerned were fighting a lonely battle but were united in taking on the ruling BSP-BJP combine. The meeting might also discuss the leadership issue.

The SP leader, Mr. Amar Singh said: "The decision of the Congress to support came a little late in the day. Had they not waited till there was a break-up in their rank, the situation would have been different. Anyhow, it is better late than never". At one time it seemed impossible that traditional rivals, the SP and the RLD, on the one hand, and the Congress and the SP, on the other, could come together. However, Mr. Ajit Singh played the role of a catalyst in bringing them together. Mr. Kalyan Singh, the outsider, seems to be very much the insider now and is playing a pivotal role in bringing about a split in the BJP.

It remains to be seen whether the resignation today in Lucknow of the RLD vice-president, Rameshwar Singh, from the party against the "autocratic" functioning of Mr. Ajit Singh might signal erosion in the RLD. So far, Mr. Singh had been holding out by shifting his nine "pressured" MLAs from Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh to Srinagar. But his is the most vulnerable group in the Opposition camp.

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Opposition leaders meeting today to review situation