Other States - Uttar Pradesh   

Former chief skips meeting

Lucknow: After large-scale cross-voting by party MLAs in the recent Rajya Sabha polls and their presence at a BSP meeting, the BJP on Tuesday received another shock when its former Uttar Pradesh chief and a senior backward class leader Om Prakash Singh did not attend the State working committee meeting on its opening day.

Mr. Singh shot off a letter to top party leaders asking them to introspect on why party's fortunes were on the decline in the State.

In the letter, which contained seven suggestions for working committee members, he called on the leadership to initiate a direct dialogue with the people.

"It was high time the senior leaders should not hanker after power", he said in the letter which was circulated to members. Mr. Singh, once considered close to BJP Vice-President Kalyan Singh, had refused to heed to party's directive to cast his third preference vote in favour of Sudhansu Mittal, an Independent, in the recent Rajya Sabha polls.

When asked about the letter, the State BJP leadership said it had no knowledge about it.

Meanwhile, a party spokesman said it was decided at the two-day meeting that the BJP would go it alone in the coming Assembly polls in the State. The prevailing political situation in the State was also discussed at the meeting, he said.

Deliberations were held to chalk out programmes to expose the ``misrule'' of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, the spokesman said.-PTI

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Former chief skips meeting

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