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Journalism of Courage
LUCKNOW, Oct 19: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today pulled out of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition Government in Uttar Pradesh, ending an alliance of contradictions and seven months of internecine tirades.
Meanwhile, Governor Romesh Bhandari asked Chief Minister Kalyan Singh to prove majority on the floor of the House at 12 noon on October 21.
Earlier in the day, after Mayawati announced her decision at a hurriedly called press conference, Kalyan urged Bhandari to allow him to prove majority since “he enjoyed support of majority of MLAs”.
Bhandari, who cut short his vacation in Mount Abu, said: “I have got letters or telephone calls of leaders of the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal, BKKP, CPI, CPM, and the Congress asking me not to give any time to Kalyan Singh because it would promote horse-trading of MLAs. But, in view of the Supreme Court verdict in the SR Bommai case I have asked him to prove majority in the Assembly.”
Wary of defections, Mayawati has once again caged her MLAs inside the State party headquarters and has made each party Minister individually tender resignation from the Cabinet.
She announced the decision to withdraw support at a press conference called at the BSP headquarters to “criticise Kalyan Singh’s style of functioning”. The press conference lasted barely four minutes before an angry Mayawati announced her decision to withdraw support.
Draped in her favourite beige salwar-kurta, the BSP leader was at her fiery best, frequently gesturing towards an imaginary Kalyan. “He is anti-Dalit, out to harm our bahujan members in the worst possible way,” she said.
After reading out a long list of charges against the Chief Minister, which everyone took as her usual tongue-lashing, she dropped the bomb-shell: “Under prevailing circumstances, we can’t continue to support the BJP Government. Hence I am withdrawing support,” she said.
Before the shock could sink in, and journalists could start asking questions, Mayawati told them to reach Governor House. “I am going to the Raj Bhawan. If you have to ask anything or take my pictures, come there,” she said before rushing out.
In her letter to the Governor, Mayawati has cited the BJP’s attempts to engineer defections from other parties, atrocities on Dalits, large-scale transfer of SC/ST bureaucrats, communalism and reversal of several of her decisions including the change in nomenclature of Karvi district by Kalyan, as reasons for taking the drastic step.
She cited recent assertions by BJP leaders Raj Nath Singh and Kalyan claiming that they would prove majority even if the BSP withdrew support from the Government as attempts to effect defections. She also cited the GO issued by Kalyan to check the misuse of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as one aimed at promoting atrocities on Dalits.
“Kalyan Singh’s action to reverse the decisions taken by me have made us apprehensive that he would change all my decisions if his Government is allowed to continue any further,” she said.
Claiming that Kalyan was trying to lure away her party MLAs, Mayawati urged the Governor to dismiss the Government, dissolve the State Assembly and conduct fresh elections immediately.
Meanwhile, in the other camp, BJP workers outnumbered journalists at Kalyan Singh’s press conference at the party headquarters in the evening. "Kalyan Singh sangharsh karo, hum tumhare saath hain" they shouted as the Chief Minister’s cavalcade reached the party office. But, a visibly relaxed Kalyan asked them to be silent. “There should be no clapping either,” he said before giving point-wise reply to Mayawati’s charges against him.
Kalyan charged Mayawati with indulging in rampant corruption during her six-month tenure as Chief Minister. “She has withdrawn support only for the fear of exposure of her corrupt deeds. I had ordered an inquiry only yesterday into one of the several corruption cases robbing the exchequer to the tune of over Rs 1,000 crore,” he said.
Kalyan listed a number of counter-charges: He said Mayawati also purchased float pumps for Fire Police Department at a rate of Rs 2.49 lakh per pump from a private firm Fire Challengers, Chennai, while the actual cost of such pumps was just Rs 60,000, including taxes. “This was done to benefit Tamil Nadu BSP president, Devanathan, who owns Fire Challengers,” Kalyan said.“I not only ordered an inquiry into the deal but also stopped payment of remaining amount since only Rs one crore had been paid to it,” he said. Kalyan termed Mayawati’s allegations against him of engineering defections as baseless since she did not cite any specific instance.
