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Kusum Rai quits, Kalyan's headache lessens

Bharatiya Janata Party dissidents in Uttar Pradesh had the last laugh Wednesday evening when controversial Municipal Corporator Kusum Rai resigned from her recently-acquired post of UP Social Welfare Advisory Board chairperson.

Her resignation comes in the wake of rumours that the BJP leadership was contemplating Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's removal if Rai did not step down from her post, which accorded her the status of a minister of state.

Rai's proximity to the chief minister had become the rallying point in the on-going Oust Kalyan campaign launched by a band of unrelenting dissidents, who enjoyed all the backing of senior BJP leaders, including state chief Raj Nath Singh, Public Works Minister Kalraj Misra and Housing Minister Lalji Tandon.

Pressure increased on Rai following BJP national general secretary Govindacharya's two-day special visit to Lucknow last week, essentially to sort out the growing differences in there. After meeting with Kalyan Singh and the dissidents separately, Govindacharya took the trouble to drive down to Rai's house, where he tried to persuade her to resign in the larger interest of the party. His request, however, went unheeded, precipitating a serious crisis.

Eventually, Union Home Minister L K Advani, who had been backing Kalyan Singh all along, felt that the only solution was to give Rai the marching orders.

The young woman corporator's meteoric rise over the past 18 months since Kalyan Singh came to power had become the talk of the town. The clout she commanded in the affairs of state brought her to the eye of the storm. Even as her interference in the administration was being hotly debated in BJP circles, Kalyan Singh got her appointed as the chairperson of the UPSWAB.

Rai's clout provoked as many as 36 legislators to tender their resignations to BJP national chief Kushabau Thakre. Though dissidents initially sought the removal of Rai and two other controversial Kalyan loyalists (from the chairmanship of two state undertakings), they finally retained only their demand for Kalyan's removal.

Prominent dissident leader Rajesh Pandey, who was a member of the state legislative council, did not say much on Rai's resignation. "Kusum Rai was not on our agenda," claimed Pandey, yet went on to point out, "but I do not deny that her exit from this prized position is a healthy sign for the party."

Asked if the dissidents would still stick to their demand for Kalyan Singh's ouster, Pandey said, "Well, that will be decided on May 24 when we meet again."

Raj Nath Singh, Lalji Tandon and Kalraj Misra preferred to maintain silent over the issue.

Kalyan Singh too kept the media away.

For her part, Rai issued a three-page statement, lashing out at all those who levelled allegations her. "I have been made a victim of the dirty politics of character assassination; I quite understand that even though the chief minister was the real target of this cheap politiking and some of his detractors were out to cause harm to him, I am being used as a pawn in the game."

Interestingly, she claimed proximity to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. She recalled her father's tremendous contribution in laying the foundations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Uttar Pradesh.

"However," she claimed, "I have sacrificed the office in the larger interest of the party."

Even as her resignation was being sent to Union Minister of State for Welfare Uma Bharti and the Central Social Welfare Advisory Board chief Mridula Sinha, Rai's supporters staged a demonstration in Lucknow against the dissidents.

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