Partners Hope Solution Will Emerge At Sept 15 Meeting

Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj party yesterday stuck to their respective contradictory positions on the issue of change in the speaker of the state assembly, but for the record hoped that the issue would be resolved at the September 15 meeting in Lucknow between senior leaders of the coalition partners.

BJP spokesman Yashjwant Sinha asserted there would be no compromise on the speaker issue but did not rule out changes in its power-sharing agreement with the BSP. The BJP is strongly opposed to changing speaker Kesarinath Tripathi (BJP). He said the BJP would abide by the agreement, but if needed the two parties could come out of the pact if needed.

Chief minister Mayawati, however, said the state would have a new chief minister on September 21 as well as a new speaker. She expressed confidence during a visit to Varanasi that the issue would be resolved at the September 15 meeting of senior leaders L K Advani, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Kanshi Ram. Advani and Vajpayee have said that all issues are negotiable.

Mayawati said when she took over as the chief minister the BJP had demanded speakership to safeguard its intereets, and now when the BJP would have their chief minister, we would like to have our speaker as the number of BSP MLAs is less than that of the BJP.