Vajpayee goes on fast unto death

LUCKNOW, Feb 21: Former Prime Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee announced that he would go on a fast unto deat...

LUCKNOW, Feb 21: Former Prime Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee announced that he would go on a fast unto death here from midnight today against what he termed as the “unconstitutional and undemocratic” dismissal of the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh.

He said he wanted to talk to Prime Minister I K Gujral before taking the decision, but “When I tried to contact Gujral, I was told the Prime Minister is taking a stroll and will contact me later”.

This showed Governor Romesh Bhandari’s decision had prior approval of the

centre, Vajpayee told a hurriedly-called press conference here, minutes before the installation of a new government in the state led by Jagdambika Pal of UP Loktantrik Congress. Outgoing Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, who was present the press conference, tried to dissuade Vajpayee from undertaking the fast, but Vajpayee said he has announced what he considered to be a fit decision and there was no question of retracing his step.

BJP state chiefRajnath Singh who was also present, told newspersons that he along with his party colleagues would also join Vajpayee in the fast unto death. Meanwhile, BJP president L K Advani is cutting short his election campaign in Himachal Pradesh and rushing to Delhi to meet president K R Narayanan following the political developments in UP. Party general secretary Venkaiah Naidu said in a statement here tonight that Advani would leave for Lucknow tomorrow soon after his meeting with the President and Vajpayee. Naidu who described the dismissal as a “tremendous assault on democracy”, said the party would face this challenge and fight it out. “We are confident that the people of India and the state of UP will teach these parties who have manoeuvred a lesson,” Naidu said.