Vajpayee: Poll potshots

Lucknow, July 27: Five BJP legislators today refused to obey party leader Lalji Tandon in the Assembly and blamed him and Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the loss in the general elections, forcing the party to slap showcause notices on them.

“I know they are belligerent and indulging in anti-party activities. I have served them showcause notices and they are supposed to reply to that in two days. Whatever they have done today would amount to ending their membership. We had earlier suspended them but later revoked the same on their own request,” Tandon said.

The group seems to have been emboldened by the notice and threatened to start a public campaign against Tandon.

When the Assembly began today, the five — Mayankeswar Saran Singh, Narendra Verma, Kobid Kumar Singh, Anil Paswan and Dayasankar Verma — rushed to the well protesting against the murder of a block-level BJP leader in Unnao. Tandon repeatedly asked them to return to their seats, but his orders fell on deaf ears.

After the House was adjourned, the MLAs lashed out at Tandon before the media in the central hall. “Look at the party’s state of affairs since Lalji Tandon took over. The party’s glory has gone for a toss and the ordinary party workers are thoroughly demoralised,” said Mayankeswar Saran Singh.

The five MLAs had refused to take their places in the Opposition benches. Instead, they have been positioning themselves closer to their friends in the ruling Samajwadi Party.

“When senior leaders of the BJP secretly meet Samajwadi Party leaders, including Azam Khan and Moktar Ansari, they are pure and devoted BJP workers and any contact made on our behalf with them is construed as evidence of revolt,” complained Narendra Verma.

“This step-motherly approach of the party leaders and a mess in the election campaign caused poll reverses. We believe Mr Tandon is as much responsible for the party’s poor showing as former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” he added in the presence of all five legislators.

Also present was Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, who was recently inducted in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government. Led by Raja Bhaiyya, then a BJP-backed Independent, the group had revolted against the Mayavati-led coalition government in 2002-03. After her government caved in, the group began hobnobbing with the Samajwadi Party.

They lay low as long as the BJP was soft towards the Samajwadi Party. The back-bench revolt erupted soon after new state party chief Kesrinath Tripathi discarded the kid gloves.

“There are more rebels in the party than just we five. Many are lying low,” said one rebel.

Sources said the dissidents are trying the party’s patience as they want to be booted out. They can join the Samajwadi Party or engineer a split in the BJP before approaching Mulayam Singh.

The Samajwadi Party needs more MLAs to offset the impact of a possible shift of loyalty of Rashtriya Lok Dal to the Congress. If that happens, the Samajwadi Party stands to lose 14 MLAs.