BSP heads for a second split in UP

NEW DELHI, Oct 23: The Bharatiya Janata Party is expecting another split in the Bahujan Samaj Party even as it remains optimistic about the...

NEW DELHI, Oct 23: The Bharatiya Janata Party is expecting another split in the Bahujan Samaj Party even as it remains optimistic about the fate of the 12 BSP MLAs who are expected to come under the Anti-Defection Act for deserting their party during Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh’s trial of strength in the Assembly on Tuesday.

BJP sources explained that once the BSP demands the expulsion of the 12 MLAs, the matter would be referred to Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi, who belongs to the BJP. The Speaker can take his time over the matter, and even if the case went to court, another significant time lag can be expected for sure. Such cases usually drag on for so long that they become defunct.

In any case, BJP leaders point out, if the 12 BSP MLAs were to lose their seats, Kalyan Singh will not lose his majority because the number of legislators in the House would go down.

Story continues below this ad

The BSP rebel MLAs intend to apply for recognition as a separate group in the Assembly. “Our numbers were more than one-third but many were captured and forcibly confined by Mayawati,” said a senior BSP MLA, Chaudhary Narendra Singh, who was till recently a political advisor to BSP supremo Kanshi Ram. “We will explain this to the Speaker. We will not come under the Anti-Defection Act because many more of our MLAs will leave the BSP,” said Markandey Chand, a former Cabinet minister in Mayawati’s government.

Mayawati, meanwhile, is finding it difficult to keep her flock of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators together. Former minister Harikrishan Srivastava, who played a key role in engineering the defections in the party, today claimed that 25 MLAs had switched sides and this would be announced when Speaker Kesri Nath Tripathi returned tomorrow.

Haunted by the fear of further defections, Mayawati held a meeting with the MLAs at her residence last night and tried to convince them that the deserters would not get ministerial berths or other favours because they would cease to be members of the Assembly for violating the whip issued by her before the trial of strength.

Sources said 12 MLAs had crossed over to the Treasury benches before the voting and more would have followed if violence hadn’t broken out in the House. Mayawati said she would soon write to the Speaker seeking cancellation of the membership of those BSP legislators who voted in favour of the Kalyan Singh government since their strength was less than one-third of the party’s strength in the House.

Story continues below this ad

Turncoats in the party are working hard to avoid such an eventuality. They want to rope in at least a dozen more legislators and stay out of the ambit of the anti-defection law. And despite the BSP leadership’s tough talk, the deserters are in touch with the “vulnerable group” of 13 more MLAs.

Kalyan Singh’s survival has made their task much easier. Party rebel Chaudhary Narendra Singh told The Indian Express that “Taking into account the ignominy these legislators have suffered at the hands of the BSP leadership alongwith the fear of facing elections within a year, we don’t have much to do to step up our numbers.”

The crisis is all too familiar for the BSP leadership. Everytime there has been political turmoil in the State, the party has been a loser. When Mayawati withdrew support from the Mulayam Singh Government in June 1995, about 20 MLAs, led by the then State party chief Raj Bahadur, had defected from the party to form a separate group called the BSP(R).