Amma makes BJP sweat under the collar

New Delhi, June 30: The Government is keeping its fingers crossed for tomorrow's AIADMK Front meeting in Chennai, hoping that Jayalalitha wi...

New Delhi, June 30: The Government is keeping its fingers crossed for tomorrow’s AIADMK Front meeting in Chennai, hoping that Jayalalitha will not precipitate a crisis. BJP leaders today repeated their refrain that the Vajpayee Government was stable. Jayalalitha would continue her support because no viable political alternative was emerging, they maintained.

The AIADMK general secretary had “at no stage” talked of withdrawing support to the Vajpayee government, BJP vice president K L Sharma claimed, adding that the party had excellent relations with her.

However, he tacitly conceded that she was refusing

to talk to Jaswant Singh, who had been asked to brief her about the deliberations of the Coordination Committee. When asked, he said he did not know anything about it and tried to dismiss the lack of communication as a “small matter”.

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Sharma criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu’s statement that the CPI(M) was ready to extend support to a Congress-led government at the Centre. He accusedthe Opposition of launching a disinformation campaign and said that there was no combination that could provide an alternative government. “This game of hide-and-seek should end. It should be clear who is with whom,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Chennai an informal meeting of the 18 AIADMK Lok Sabha MPs is likely to be held tomorrow where the party is likely to discuss its relationship with the BJP-led government.

Sources said the meeting, billed as “routine,” has been convened to thrash out the party’s strategy during the Parliament session which will resume on July 3. During the last session, the AIADMK walked out several times over the issue of dismissal of the DMK government.

Jayalalitha, according to a senior party functionary, has not yet decided whether she will attend the meeting. “It all depends on her state of health,” he remarked.

Nothing wrong with Jaya’s demands: Thakre

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JAIPUR: Denying that Jayalalitha’s stand on the dismissal of the DMK government amounted to blackmail,BJP president Kushabhau Thakre said here that “Her demands are more like pressure tactics and there is nothing wrong in that…in a coalition, such pressures are routine.”