Bjp Targets Sympathy Votes

A demoralised BJP yesterday ignored its senior leader Kalyan Singhs inability to keep his flock together in Uttar Pradesh and directed its ire completely against Governor Romesh Bhandari.

While former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee staged an indefinite fast to demand Bhandaris recall, party president LK Advani met President KR Narayanan and demanded that the President should invoke article 156 to sack Bhandari.

BJP leaders including LK Advani claimed that Kalyan Singh would prove majority if he were allowed a floor test in the state legislative assembly. Vajpayee held that Singh should have been given a chance.

His claim, however, did not stand the test of numbers as the new government in Uttar Pradesh was formed by those Loktantrik Congress MLAs and other legislators who had supported Singhs governnment. On defeating the new government on the floor of the assembly on Tuesday, Advani said many things would happen before that.

Some BJP leaders privately admitted that the government had lost the numbers and that the party would not mind imposition of Presidents rule in the state. They said there was also a chance that if given an opportunity,the Singh might prove his governments majority.

The overall mood in the party favoured creating a martyr image for the BJP in order to try to create a sympathy wave in its favour.

Some of them also held that Kalyan Singh failed to assess the mood of the Loktantrik legislators even when it was evident they could not be trusted. Some party workers hold Singh responsible for the debacle.

The party plans to turn the Uttar Pradesh incident into a big electoral point in the coming days to influence the third phase of polling on Februady 28.

Already the party has tried to control the possible negative impact of losing a government through Vajpayee fast. Advani claimed that the fast would trigger country-wide demonstrations against those trying to gang-up against the BJP.

The BJPs task force gave advertisements in the newspapers in UP and Bihar which went to the polls in the second phase. The advertisements contained the twin issues of Coimbatore bomb blasts and Uttar Pradesh events.

Both the issues indicated that stability was the only way to prevent these from repeating, a member of the task force held.

BJP leaders are likely to undertake a whirlwind tour of the constituencies that would go to the polls on February 28.