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BJP tries to get a life, seeks partners in ICU

George Iype in New Delhi

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Monday braced himself against the political onslaught from AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha by rejecting outright her demands to reinstate sacked Navy Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat and remove George Fernandes as defence minister.

At an emergency 90-minute Cabinet meeting on Monday morning, the Vajpayee government threw down the gauntlet by declaring that the BJP-led government is prepared to prove its majority in the Lok Sabha.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan said the government is not willing to oblige Jayalalitha by setting up a joint parliamentary committee to look into the corruption charges levelled by Admiral Bhagwat.

However, he said the government is ready for any type of discussion or debates on the Admiral Bhagwat issue in Parliament.

With Jayalalitha now certain to withdraw support in the coming days and the prospect of defeat in the Lower House looming large, BJP crisis managers have begun work at a survival strategy.

Thus, while party general secretary Venkaiah Naidu has been despatched to Hyderabad to talk to the Telugu Desam Party, vice-president Jana Krishnamurthy and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Bannerjee have been asked to contact the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Tamil Maanila Congress.

During the Cabinet meeting, which was not attended by the AIADMK nominee, Law Minister Thambi Durai, the prime minister took into confidence all alliance partners, and assured them that the government would continue even after Jayalalitha pulls out.

The alliance leaders and BJP leadership also agreed that it is better to show the door to the mercurial AIADMK chief rather than suffer her tantrums every now and then.

BJP leaders said by taking a rigid stand on the Admiral Bhagwat issue and rejecting the AIADMK demands, the Vajpayee government has considerably improved the party's political image.

"Even if the Vajpayee coalition does not survive in the coming days, we have succeeded in portraying that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Jayalalitha are trying to dislodge the government," a BJP politician told Rediff On The NeT.

"It is now the BJP, not the Congress and other Opposition parties, that is deriving political mileage out of the Jayalalitha-sponsored crisis," he added.

But the BJP politician added that his party is looking for miracles to convert political foes into friends. Talk that the BJP crisis managers are offering "deals" to prospective coalition partners has also started making the rounds in the capital. The blandishments reportedly include allocation of cash-rich ministerial departments to the new coalition partners.

But top BJP leaders reiterated on Monday that neither the government nor the party would indulge in any deals with regional parties to enable Vajpayee prove his majority in Parliament.

Soon after the Cabinet meeting, Human Resource Development Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi said his government would not resort to horse-trading to prove its majority in the Lok Sabha.

Withdrawal of support by the 18 MP-strong AIADMK would leave the Vajpayee government in a minority in the Lower House. The ruling coalition will be left with 258 members in the House while the half-way mark is 272.

The BJP leadership's main target is to rope in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's DMK with six MPs, Kanshi Ram's Bahujan Samaj Party with five MPs and woo back Om Parkash Chautala's Lok Dal with four MPs into the coalition fold.

Moreover, the BJP's crisis managers have been told to lure Independents and one-MP parties like the Kerala Congress-M and the UMFA.

The BJP leadership is certain that the DMK will cross over to the Vajpayee coalition as the possibility of Karunanidhi sharing a political platform with Jayalalitha and the Congress is remote.

Similarly, since BSP MPs voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha over the Bihar motion last month, the BJP expects that Kanshi Ram may also come to the party's rescue.

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