PM-in-waiting, waiting, waiting…

The President has told Vajpayee that he would consider the matter and would let him know his decision on Saturday, the day the BJP hopes the letter from Chennai will finally arrive.

During his 30-minute meeting, Vajpayee told the President that the BJP was unable to get Jayalalitha’s letter while producing documentary proof to show that the BJP and its allies now numbered 240.

The BJP is nowbanking on the fact that Jayalalitha needs it as much as it needs her. It’s being pointed out to her that if the BJP fails to form a government and the Congress-United Front succeed, she will have an adversarial Centre to contend withespecially as the Dravida Munnetra Kazagam-Tamil Maanila Congress would be part of it. In Chennai, Jayalalitha blamed the BJP’s `negative attitude’ to her demands as the reason for not sending her support letter.

While BJP leader Vajpayee told the media in New Delhi that there was no question of succumbing to AIADMK pressure on portfolio allotments, Jayalalitha denied laying any condition like allocation of the finance portfolio to her nominee or dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu.

On the contrary, she had demanded an assurance package for Tamil Nadu on important issues like the Cauvery water dispute and constitutional protection for the state’s quantum of reservation, she told some television channels.

There was no point in AIADMK and its state allies (whoaccount for 27 MPs), giving support letters at this stage, when the BJP’s attitude was not `encouraging’.

She said the issues on which she had sought the BJP’s assurance were:

Solving the Cauvery dispute or nationalising all rivers, constitutional amendment to give states the freedom to fix their own reservation percentage, official language status to Tamil and raising the level of the Periyar dam on the state’s border with Kerala.

Earlier, at the end of a fruitless day in which negotiations with Jayalalitha broke down and resumed again, Vajpayee admitted: “Ministry formation is one of the main issues in the talks with the AIADMK.” This was a tacit admission that Jayalalitha was insisting that the finance and law portfolios be given to her nominees.

The BJP is learnt to have taken a tough stand with Jayalalitha. “I will not give in to any pressure,” Vajpayee told journalists at Rashtrapati Bhavan after meeting the President. Sources said the BJP leadership was of the view that it would be preferto sit in the Opposition than make the compromises that Jayalalitha was demanding.

BJP sources said she was insistent on assurances on three issues: the corruption cases against her, dismissal of the TN government and inclusion of Swamy as finance minister. The ED comes under the Finance Ministry.Another demand is that the Law Ministry, also important for such cases, be given to V Ramamurthy of the Tamilzhaga Rajiv Congress, an ally of the AIADMK. A prominent BJP leader blamed Swamy for being the root cause of all the trouble. “He is the troublemaker,” he said.

The BJP appears to have made it clear to Jayalalitha that it cannot give in to these demands. If a commitment is made on the dismissal of the TN government, similar demands will follow from the Samata Party and Haryana Lok Dal for the dismissal of the Bihar and Haryana governments. For the BJP, which has made misuse of Article 356 a major issue, this would be political suicide.

Throughout the day, leaders of the BJP and its allies tried topersuade themselves that Jayalalitha’s letter would come. But the mood was grim. Meetings between the BJP and its allies were held all day, first at 10 a.m., then at 11.30 a.m., 5 p.m. and finally at 9 p.m. for a de-briefing of the Vajpayee-Narayanan meeting.

Particularly as talks between Vajpayee, Advani and Jayalalitha were said to have broken down last night. Though BJP leaders claimed that there had been no contact, sources said that Vajpayee and Jayalalitha finally did speak in the evening. Her statement was issued after that.

All demands have been met, claims BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said that the AIADMK’s demands concerning the interests of Tamil Nadu have been taken care of in the “national agenda” for governance which has been unanimously accepted by all the allies of the party.

Commenting on the contention of AIADMK chief Jayalalitha that she was not demanding the dismissal of DMK government or plum posts for some MPs fromthe state and that her main demand related to the development of the state, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh said there is no such demand which has not been accepted or incorporated in the agenda.

The agenda will be released on March 14 in which one could see that the demands have been adequately addressed, he told reporters after BJP parliamentary party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee apprised the party’s electoral allies about his discussions with the President K R Narayanan.

However, Singh said the problem, as some AIADMK allies have themselves claimed, lay in allocation of ministerial portfolios. But the BJP is not going to succumb to such pressures, he added. Party general secretary M Venkiah Naidu said Jayalalitha had not formally informed the BJP as to why she was taking time to decide. Asked what will happen if she does not not decide in favour of BJP forming government, Naidu said the mandate was for BJP.