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Narayanan tied up in consultations

President K R Narayanan on Sunday commenced consultations to defuse the crisis caused by the removal of the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh even as the Bharatiya Janata Party stepped up its campaign demanding the dismissal of state Governor Romesh Bhandari while other parties stoutly resisted such a move.

Narayanan had an hour-long meeting with Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral followed by a meeting with BJP president L K Advani at Rashtrapati Bhavan as the flurry of political activity which led to the fall of Kalyan Singh government at Lucknow last night shifted to the national capital.

Sources said a major input which could resolve the contentious constitutional issue, the verdict from the Allahabad high court, is anxiously awaited. The BJP has moved the court challenging the governor's decision to remove its government, and the court has adjourned hearing till Monday.

The BJP's prime ministerial candidate A B Vajpayee, who arrived in New Delhi from Lucknow, is continuing his indefinite fast for the second day demanding Bhandari's ouster. Advani cut short his campaign in Himachal Pradesh to meet Narayanan to convey his party's displeasure over the governor's action.

Emerging from a meeting with Narayanan, Advani demanded that Bhandari should be removed forthwith as he had brought disgrace to the constitutional office of governor. The BJP said the party would launch a nation-wide agitation to protest against the UP governor. Vajpayee's indefinite hunger strike is just the beginning of the struggle, he said.

The Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, however, stoutly defended the governor's action in removing the Kalyan Singh government. CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet told newspersons that the Kalyan Singh government should have stepped down the moment the Loktrantik Congress withdrew support.

The Congress, however, charged the BJP with adopting double standards by criticising the governor's move in removing Kalyan Singh government while three years ago, the same party supported the dismissal of the Mulayam Singh government without giving an opportunity to prove its majority on the floor of the state assembly.

UNI

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