ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Kalyan threatens to topple UP government

Former chief minister Kalyan Singh today claimed that he could topple the Uttar Pradesh government whenever he wanted.

Breaking his silence after his suspension from the party on Saturday, Singh spewed venom on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, accusing him of having instigated the legislators to oppose him (Kalyan Singh).

But he added that it does not matter whether the MLAs support him because the people of the state are with him and they are agitated by his suspension.

He said there is no alternative to holding a mid-term election in the state. "I am challenging all those who wish to tread the path strewn with difficulties to come with me," he said.

"The party has sent me a show-cause notice and I will give my reply, but I know the result. I shall be expelled from the party because the prime minister wants it this way.

"The charge of indiscipline was levelled against me, but there is nobody else more indisciplined in the BJP than Mr Vajpayee," he said.

The show-cause notice did not specify which of his statements was objectionable, Singh said.

Accusing Vajpayee of instigating the MLAs against him, he said, "Mr Devendra Nath Bhole, who resigned from the Council of Ministers and insulted me, was not thrown out of the party nor was any action taken against him."

Singh alleged that Vajpayee had always tried to run him down and fixed all his programmes for his Lucknow visits at a minister's house. He fanned differences within the party and his actions had brought the BJP to the brink of destruction.

At a meeting held in Delhi to review the Lok Sabha election results, a resolution was tabled on mid-term elections, but Vajpayee opposed it and asked whether those present wanted him or Kalyan Singh and made his [Singh's] removal a prestige issue, he added.

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra and Lalji Tandon had been instigating the MLAs against him for a year, but managed to get the support of only 16 MLAs and four MLCs, he said. The last two elections were fought in Vajpayee's name, but the party did not gain from it.

The victory in the recent Lok Sabha election was not of the BJP, but of the allies, Singh said. He said his wish had been to be wrapped in the party flag for cremation, but Vajpayee had deprived him of even his shroud.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report