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Dissident leaders start oust-Gaur campaign

Neena Vyas

Move seen as Uma Bharti's efforts to regain reins of Madhya Pradesh Government

— PHOTO: PTI

BACK IN ACTION: The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, with her supporters at her residence in Bhopal on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: A determined bid is being made by Bharatiya Janata Party dissidents loyal to former Chief Minister Uma Bharati to force the party's central leadership to agree to a timetable for changing Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur. However, central party leaders indicated that nothing would be done; at least not before the Bihar elections are out of the way.

Three senior State leaders, including two Ministers in the Babulal Gaur Government, were here on Tuesday and they met former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the morning, general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh affairs Arun Jaitley in the afternoon and were hoping to meet party president L.K. Advani late Tuesday evening or on Wednesday.

Reports suggest that the three have handed over a memorandum signed by 106 MLAs (the BJP has a total strength of 173 in an Assembly of 220) to Mr. Jaitley saying that a meeting of the party's legislature party in Madhya Pradesh be called to elect a new leader (to replace Mr. Gaur).

The three MLAs — Gauri Shankar Shejwar, Anoop Mishra (who is a nephew of Mr. Vajpayee), and Dhanendra Singh — were apparently told by Mr. Jaitley that one, they were welcome to talk to party leaders but must not do this "through the media," and two, the "timing" of their move was not proper as they were making these demands when the leadership was engaged in the crucial Bihar election battle.

Mr. Jaitley refused to deny or confirm receipt of the memorandum signed by 106 MLAs. "I will not say anything on the matter," he told reporters when repeatedly asked about this.

Outside Mr. Jaitley's office, Mr. Shejwar told reporters that the three of them — Mr. Mishra, Mr. Singh and himself — had met Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Jaitley, and were hoping to meet Mr. Advani. "We were satisfied with the discussions," they said adding that "party discipline" prevented them from saying anything more to the press. They refused to respond to questions on a memorandum by MLAs seeking a leadership change.

On Monday night Mr. Jaitley is believed to have spoken to Ms. Bharati, who, in Bhopal, has continued to maintain that she is not behind the dissidence although it is an open secret that she is making a determined bid to force the central leadership to replace Mr. Gaur and give her back the Chief Minister's post that she feels legitimately belongs to her.

"She was asked to resign after the Hubli case. When the Hubli matter was dropped she should have been given back her position," argued one central party leader. "Otherwise she should have been told that Hubli was just an excuse, she was not fit to be Chief Minister." At the same time it is being said that there is little chance of the party allowing a leadership tussle in Madhya Pradesh when attention was focussed on Bihar.

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Dissident leaders start oust-Gaur campaign

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