Central Rule May Be Extended In Up

Throughout the day, hectic political activity was on in the capital and Lucknow. In an unprecedented move, Congress president Sitaram Kesari attended the meeting of the United Front's apex steering committee in the evening. After attending the meeting for 35 minutes, a cheerful Kesari indicated that he had forcefully placed his case to secure the Front's support for Mayawati's candidature for the chief minister's post.

The meeting, however, remained inconclusive. It would meet again tomorrow, according to CPI (M) leader H S Surjeet.

Mulayam Singh Yadav was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting. He left for Lucknow in the morning. He was adamant that he would not support Mayawati and insisted that there should be a UF government in Lucknow since it was the largest of the non-BJP formations.

He is hoping to demonstrate to Governor Romesh Bhandari that he enjoys the support of more MLAs than the BJP-Samata alliance does. The idea is that with more MLAs than the BJP (even if did not amount to a majority), the governor would have to invite the larger formation to form the government.

Since this too would necessarily have to be a short-lived experiment, a section of the United Front favours extension of President's rule. During the day, V P Singh told Front leaders to persuade the Centre to extend President's rule..