Kalyan Singh's critics are again clamouring for change. How long can he hold on?
What remains if 40 goes out of 224? Ask Kalyan Singh, UP chief minister. For the last couple of weeks as his allies raised the pitch against his coalition, this simple equation must have given him sleepless nights. But if Kalyan has given his critics another stick to beat him with, he has only himself to blame, after he opened up the Pandora's box when he announced that any attempt to change the leadership would push the state into a mid-term election.
The mention of mid-term polls normally has a numbing effect on any of the elected members, specially in a state which has had a severely fractured verdict in both the 1993 and 1996 assembly elections, but this time the trick boomeranged. Suddenly, he found leaders all around him voicing their suffocation at his leadership. And though he got the central leadership to say it wasn't considering a change, the allies are unwilling to give in.
Most of his senior party colleagues and other ministers were conspicuous by their absence at the dinner hosted by Rajvir Singh, son of the chief minister, to celebrate his father's birthday on January 5. Interestingly, though most of them were in town, each one offered an alibi to explain his absence. Then, all four ministers of the Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party (jbsp), a key ally, boycotted a Cabinet meeting last week
Says one of them, Markandey Chand: We will only attend meetings after he deals with the grievances of each of our party members. Yashwant Singh, jbsp minister of state for technical education, alleges Kalyan has been side-tracking them from day one: The chief minister has direct dealings with administration officials, who in turn bypass the ministers concerned. The opinion or suggestions of the ministers are never taken. It seems we are here just to give him heads to be counted during a vote of confidence.
The chief minister met prime minister Vajpayee last week. Accompanied by leaders of allied parties, Narendra Singh (jbsp) and Naresh Agarwal (Loktantrik Congress), Kalyan later said he would have a meeting of jbsp mlas this week to sort out the problems. But even if allies are placated, he will still have to contend with the oust-Kalyan demand from certain upper caste sections of the bjp. They took their grouse to Vajpayee when he visited Lucknow.
In a state riddled with caste politics, the so-called bjp discipline has been cracking at the seams time and again. While it's true that Kalyan has been the bjp's most potent and emphatic answer to Mulayam Singh Yadav's backward politics in UP, being a natural upper-caste platform, the bjp has lived with a dangerous mix of both classes.
With Kalyan becoming the inevitable choice for the prized position, the upper caste state leaders may have had every reason to feel suffocated. For somebody as politically savvy as Rajnath Singh, being restricted to virtually a rubber stamp position of state party president must be frustrating. As for Kalraj Mishra, who remains a Cabinet minister of little consequence, he must be finding it difficult to present himself as the torch-bearer of Brahmins.
Whatever games a couple of senior party leaders, obviously backed by key central leaders, might be playing against Kalyan, the bjp's disciplined face is just about restraining some senior leaders from going public. But almost every minister outside the bjp fold seems quite comfortable in airing their grievances against Kalyan.
And point at the Baba Dharamdas episode to highlight how differently they are treated. Dharamdas, chief trustee of Ram Janmabhoomi, spewed venom on Kalyan when the chief minister refused to meet him when he had called on him to sort out some problems regarding a bridge project at Molanapur in Pratapgarh district and the construction of the Ram mandir. Kalyan, eager to amend matters, despatched district magistrate Sadakant Mishra to appease the sadhu. This placated the mahant, who soon after met the chief minister at his official residence. Kalyan duly apologised and promised that there would be a special waiting room for sadhus at the CM's residence. He explained to Dharamdas that the misunderstanding was created by some of his officials, who prevented the baba from meeting him despite prior appointment. An inquiry has also been ordered to identify the erring officials. Not only this, on orders of the chief minister, state minister for irrigation Dhanraj Yadav accompanied the saffron contingent all the way to Ayodhya.
This incident clearly reflects the accommodating politician in Kalyan, but only if he so wishes. The jbsp and Loktantrik Congress Party (lcp) ministers say they are yet to see this side of the chief minister. Says lcp leader and power minister Naresh Agarwal: We want something as small as a coordination committee and we are not getting it, I hope God makes me a sadhu in my next birth. Senior bjp leader and urban development minister Lalji Tandon also voices similar sentiments, though he words it carefully: It is most imperative for an able administrator to be accessible. An efficient leader is one who tries to minimise any form of communication gaps with his men.
Rajnath Singh, who has always been considered a possible alternative to Kalyan, has cowed down for now. He feels that the issue of change of leadership has been blown out of proportion. We can always talk it out with the supporting parties and handle the grievances. And given Kalyan's fighting spirit, the allies, despite their aggression, will have to keep trying. After all both sides know fairly well that the only logical choice is to stick on.