Anatomy of a coup

The Governor was unavailable for comments for he was “sleeping” whenever he was approached for a reaction to the allegation. Sources close to Bhandari too refused to comment on the issue, saying only he could comment on such issues.

After the Orchha meeting, Mulayam asked Pal and Tiwari to talk to Mayawati and elect a universally-accepted leader in the LC. He also promised them the support of his party MLAs. Apparently, Mayawati too agreed.

But Pal sustained mild injuries in a car accident near Barabanki. The leaders who were plotting the coup, called on Pal in Lucknow on the pretext of seeing him. Pal later went to Delhi for getting medical aid. After the preliminaries, the final strategy was chalked out later in New Delhi. Pal, along with Agrawal, called on Kanshi Ram and Mayawati in Delhi. Kanshi Ram objected to Agrawal’s name as the next chief minister because he held him responsible forbailing out the Kalyan Singh Government on October 21 after Mayawati had withdrawn support.

Jagadambika Pal’s name was suggested by Congress leader Arjun Singh. Pal, a fellow Thakur, was close to Arjun Singh since their days in the Tiwari Congress. Kanshi Ram agreed. But this made Agrawal angry and he did not participate in the negotiations any further.

After this only the question of timing remained to be decided. Mayawati excused herself till February 21, due to her busy schedule. Mulayam too agreed on February 21 for he preferred the polling in his Lok Sabha Constituency, Sambhal, to be held under a favourable government.

Agrawal was ultimately roped in on October 21 morning when Pal claimed support of 21 LC MLAs — with the sole exception of Agrawal. “You have been left alone. But if you come along, you will be made deputy Chief Minister,” Pal told Agrawal. The deal was immediately clinched and support withdrawn at 2 p.m.

Not many LC leaders were taken into confidence. Leaders like HarishankarTiwari and Mandaleshwar Singh when asked by journalists for their stand in Gorakhpur pledged their support to Kalyan Singh at 2.30 p.m.. But on reaching Lucknow, they found themselves in a minority, with most of their colleagues on the Pal bandwagon. They too followed suit.

Bhandari was shaken when Kalyan walked up to him armed with letters of support from two LC ministers, Diwakar Vikram Singh and Vivek Singh.Bhandari is reported to have asked Mulayam, how could he swear Pal in if LC itself was a divided house. Mulayam reportedly told him that he should go ahead.

In his haste to hand over Uttar Pradesh’s throne to Pal, Bhandari even ignored the faxed advice by President K.R. Narayanan to ask Kalyan Singh for a floor test and also the advice given to him by Lucknow lawyers.

He later told reporters that he wanted to give an equal opportunity to the two claimants in Uttar Pradeh’s power struggle which was why he dismissed Kalyan Government. “I was confident that a majority of MLAs were with Pal and ifKalyan was allowed to remain in power, he would certainly have tried to engineer defections through horese trading, while Pal would not resort to any such action since he already had complete majority,” Bhandari said in his report to the Centre on February 22 after swearing in Pal the previous night.