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| Mulayam Yadav unites Congress, BJP | | Governor recommends President's rule in UP | | BL KAK
NEW DELHI | FEB. 18
Adopting secrecy-for-the-sake-of-secrecy policy, Governor of Uttar Pradesh (UP), TV Rajeshwar, has recommended the imposition of President's rule in the State. Rajeshwar did not divulge the secret--that is, his formal recommendation to the Centre for President's rule in UP.
UP's controversial Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, did not take more than an hour to smell the rat. He reiterated that any move to "dismiss" his government would be "unconstituional". Elaborating on it, Mulayam Yadav said: "We have not only repeatedly won the vote of confidence on the floor of the State Assembly but we are willing to prove it once again when the State Assembly meets on February 26".
According to qualified sources, the UP Governor sent his pro-President's rule report to the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, through a special envoy flown from Lucknow to New Delhi on Saturday (Feb. 17). Governor's report followed Supreme Court verdict disqualifying 13 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) defectors and putting a question mark on 24 others with whose support Mulayam Singh Yadav had cobbled up a majority to win a vote of confidence shortly after forming his government in 2003.
The UP Governor's report was prepared in the wake of demands by Opposition leaders to dismiss the 41-month-old Mulayam Yadav government. In UP and elsewhere the Congress and the BJP do not see eye to eye with each other. Interestingly, however, these two parties, though divided on several other issues, have joined hands, at least for the time being, on the demand for President's rule in Uttar Pradesh.
BSP national general secretary, Satish Chandra Misra, had argued that since the apex court had disqualified the 13 defectors with retrospect from August 28, 2003, the very constitution of the government was illegal from day one. Misra was reported to have had a long meeting with the UP Governor on Friday.
The Governor also had a long discussion on telephone with Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, before sending his report to the centre, the sources said. However, according to sources close to Mulayam Singh Yadav, he will not step down on "moral grounds" but will wait for the Centre's next move. With that the scene naturally shifts from Lucknow to New Delhi where Congress leaders are busy making efforts to convince allies to enable the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to take the Governor's recommendation forward.
At the Centre, although senior Cabinet Ministers have held discussions with both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the issue, the ruling party is in a fix over objections from its Communist allies. "It has to be done on the floor of the House," said Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), as his party opposes the use of Article 356 that enables the imposition of President's Rule in a State. Karat had conveyed his displeasure to Singh and Sonia Gandhi through External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who held talks with the allies on Friday. |
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