THE Uttar Pradesh BJP nearly suffered from the Vaghela syndrome. For days on end, the BJP's strongest backward face and chief ministerial aspirant, Kalyan Singh, battled with the leadership and the RSS Parivar that the seat of power was rightfully his. At one point, it was even feared that he might stage a walkout. In the end, a four-decade association with the saffron family came in the way and he bowed to the party's wishes—and gave his assent to a tie-up with the BSP.
After the Uttar Pradesh elections, the BJP was upbeat despite falling short of an absolute majority—the saffron brigade was jubilant that enemy number one Mulayam Singh Yadav's party had also failed to come out trumps.
But it didn't take any chances. The RSS and its outfits swung into action and began working out the possibility of hitching a ride to power with the Bahujan Samaj Party, with Mayawati as chief minister. In return, all that the BJP expected from her was an understanding that she would isolate common foe Mulayam.
But Kalyan Singh, who was unanimously elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party, threw a spanner in the works—immediately reminding the powers that be in the BJP of the Gujarat episode. "There cannot be two chief ministers," Kalyan screamed, implying that as leader of the single largest party, he should be the natural claimant for the chief minister's post.
The Sangh Parivar and party leaders in Delhi retreated. After all, Kalyan had been given a free rein in Uttar Pradesh—he handpicked candidates, denied tickets to sitting MLAs and sent out a clear message that he was calling the shots. Moreover, the BJP leadership couldn't afford to shut out Kalyan because he had stuffed the state unit with backward candidates and a possible revolt would only reduce the BJP to a marginal player in state politics. Kalyan handed out 180 tickets to backward candidates, 45 more than in the 1993 election.
With Governor Romesh Bha-ndari showing no signs of inviting any party short of the 213 fig-ure to form the government, Kalyan even tried to split the Congress and forge his own party. In sheer desperation, he also approached some disgruntled upper caste legislators in the Samajwadi Party and the BSP.
As the deadline for cobbling together a viable alliance came to an end and the Allahabad High court refused to issue a directive to Bhandari to call Kalyan to form the government, the BJP leadership overpowered him. "We enjoy autonomy. But what Kalyan Singh wanted was absolute autonomy and we could not grant it," said a senior RSS functionary. Senior RSS leaders H.V. Seshadri and K.C. Sudarshan besides Advani and Vajpayee met Kalyan Singh many times to veer him round to supporting the BSP.
While the BJP's decision in Uttar Pradesh might affect Kalyan Singh's political aspirations, party leaders feel he will not go the Vaghela way. For one, Vaghela had a lot of misgiving against the party. He was denied an opportunity to even join the race for chief ministership on several occasions, but Kalyan Singh—twice chief minister—was projected as the leader at the outset. And the party considered the option of supporting the BSP only after he failed to muster the required support to form the government. Second, Vaghela had other parties waiting to support him, but Kalyan does not have that advantage. He will continue to sulk—but will find it difficult to walk out, unlike Vaghela.
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