The Hindu : U.P. Governor rules out convening Assembly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 27, 2002

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U.P. Governor rules out convening Assembly

Lucknow Oct. 26. The Mayawati Government today breathed slightly easy with the Uttar Pradesh Governor, Vishnu Kant Shastri, rejecting the demand of rebel independents for convening the State Assembly, even as the BJP stepped up its efforts to woo its dissidents with the promise of an audience with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

However, the Samajwadi Party did not slacken its efforts in its bid to drum up support for its moves to topple the six-month old Government.

The party chief, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has sought an appointment with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.

A day after eight independents withdrew support to the BSP-BJP coalition in the State, Mr. Shastri said that even after the reduced strength, the Government enjoyed a majority of 210 in a House of 403, and that there was no need for a trial of strength as demanded by the rebel independents.

Mr. Shastri, who met the rebel independents on Friday night, said seven of them had voted for the Government when it won the confidence vote in May this year with a total of 217 votes.

In a bid to woo back the rebels, the BJP's troubleshooter and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Rajnath Singh, said Mr. Vajpayee was ready to listen to the dissidents' grievances.

He quoted Mr. Vajpayee as saying that the rebels could meet him whenever they wished to. The leader of the rebel independents, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, alias Raja Bhaiya, who took the dissidents to the Governor on Friday, meanwhile, claimed that at least three more independents would withdraw support to the Government in a day or two. — PTI

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