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BJP decides to replace UP chief minister

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Union Surface Transport Minister Rajnath Singh is to replace Ram Prakash Gupta as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Top officials in the prime minister's office told rediff.com on Wednesday night that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made up his mind to replace Gupta.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership had invited four senior party leaders of the state - Chief Minister Gupta, Works Department Minister Kalraj Mishra, Urban Development Minister Lalji Tandon and state party chief Om Prakash Singh - to Delhi for a dinner meeting with the prime minister on Wednesday. Vajpayee was to discuss the matter with Gupta at the dinner, the sources said.

It is learnt that Gupta and the others met BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre earlier in the day. Thakre indicated to the chief minister that he would have to go.

"Guptaji took the news calmly and emphasised that he would abide by the decision of the party leadership since he was a loyal soldier," the sources pointed out.

It is learnt that the BJP leadership, including Vajpayee and Thakre, is in a hurry to effect the change in order to arrest the downslide in its fortunes. "Don't be surprised if the new chief minister is sworn-in at the Raj Bhavan in Lucknow within the next 48 hours," the sources said.

On June 17, rediff.com had reported from New Delhi that the BJP leadership had in principle decided to replace Gupta with Rajnath Singh because the party leadership did not want to risk fighting the assembly polls with Gupta at the helm.

The chief minister had recently scoffed at reports about his imminent replacement and had announced various sops in a desperate bid to convey to the central party leadership that he was very much in command of the situation in Uttar Pradesh.

After severely mauling the BJP candidate in the recent Lok Sabha by-poll in the Soron constituency, former chief minister Kalyan Singh's new party had caused considerable disquiet in BJP circles in the state.

Gupta's fate was sealed when the BJP could not win a single seat in the panchayat elections in the prime minister's high-profile Lucknow constituency. That appeared to be the last straw for the chief minister.

Factional leaders will be told by Vajpayee that they have to help the party recover lost ground and that the party is looking forward to their valuable contribution. A senior Delhi-based leader contended that the party's main priority would be to prepare the ground to fight the assembly polls.

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