Kalyan Takes Over Reins, Retains Mayawatis Team In Up

A 44-member coalition ministry, headed by senior BJP leader Kalyan Singh, was sworn-in yesterday in a smooth change of guard in Uttar Pradesh under a unique power-sharing accord between the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Nineteen cabinet ministers besides Singh and 24 ministers of state in the two-tier council of ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Romesh Bhandari at the KD Singh Babu Stadium here.

All the members of the outgoing Mayawati ministry, barring parliamentary affairs minister Barkhu Ram Verma, were retained by Kalyan Singh.

Former Chief Minister Mayawati, former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, BJP president L.K. Advani, BSP supremo Kanshi Ram, a number of political leaders and top government officials attended the oath-taking ceremony.

Singh, a senior-most member of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly took the oath in Hindi. He returns to the helm of affairs of the countrys most populous state after nearly five years.

Mayawati submitted the resignation of her council of ministers to the Governor on Saturday paving the way for Singh to succeed her. The two parties entered into an accord in March last to share the office of chief minister for six months each after the electorate gave a fractured verdict leading to continuation of Presidents rule in the state. Under the agreement, the BSP was to lead the coalition government for six months and then be replaced by the BJP.

The transfer of power, however, ran into into rough weather with the BSP insisting on a change of Speaker, who belongs to the BJP, as a condition for change of guard apprehending that the Speaker might play a partisan role in helping the BJP to muster majority on its own by engineering defection in other parties.

Weeks of uncertainty over the transition and hectic parleys between the top leadership of the alliance partners ended when the BJP gave an undertaking that it would not trigger defections during the partys rule.

Meanwhile, the Congress party yesterday observed a black day here in protest against the swearing-in even after being charged in a case of demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya in 1992. The party workers, led by legislature party leader Pramod Tewari, staged a dharna in front of the Gandhi statue at GPO Park. The Samajwadi Party too, as a mark of protest, will boycott all functions relating to the swearing-in ceremony of Kalyan Singh as Chief Minister, SP state unit chief Ram Saran Das said.