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BJP trying to win RPI support

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party has started trying to woo the four Lok Sabha members of the Republican Party of India over to its side in an attempt to save its coalition government.

Top BJP politicians told Rediff On The NeT that the stage has been set for the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to face an Opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion in Parliament.

"Both sides know this will be a no-holds-barred battle and we are taking appropriate steps," a senior BJP politician said.

He hinted that three RPI members had agreed to vote against the motion, and talks are in progress to get the fourth MP to join them.

Meanwhile, senior home ministry officials indicated that the withdrawal of the AIADMK's ministers from the government was the first of a two-phased withdrawal of support. They said the party would now pull the rug from under Vajpayee's feet on the floor of the Lok Sabha, but did not elaborate.

Significantly, there is a difference of opinion in the home ministry on the government's stand on Jayalalitha's demands. One section believes the BJP-led coalition has repeated a historical mistake by making it a prestige issue. Their allusion is to the National Front government's rejection in 1990 of the demand to replace V P Singh as prime minister on the Mandal issue and its subsequent defeat in the Lok Sabha.

The other section believes that bowing down to Jayalalitha now would have emboldened her to make still more outrageous demands.

A meeting of Congressmen at working committee member Arjun Singh's Canning Lane residence this evening added a new dimension to the fast-paced political developments. Spokesman Ajit Jogi claimed to be unaware of any such meeting. Singh's household also denied it. But home ministry officials insisted the meeting took place.

Jogi accused the government of resorting to horse-trading in a bid to save itself. He claimed that the BJP had tried, unsuccessfully, to break the AIADMK over the last one year. He said they have resumed their attempts to woo a section of Jayalalitha's MPs and are trying similar tactics with the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

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