LCP splits, Agrawal expelled

By Our Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW, AUG. 11. The dismissed Uttar Pradesh Minister for Energy, Mr. Naresh Agrawal, was today left in the lurch by all but one of his party MLAs who formed their own group and decided to continue their support to the Rajnath Singh Government.

At a meeting here this afternoon in which 14 of the 19 Loktantrik Congress Party (LCP) Ministers were present, Mr. Shyam Sunder Sharma was elected the LCP legislature group leader in the place of Mr. Agrawal. A resolution was adopted to expel Mr. Agrawal from the party keeping in view the Chief Minister's decision to dismiss him from the Cabinet, thus splitting the LCP.

The LCP MLAs claimed that besides the 14 MLAs who were present at the meeting three others had also decided to join the group and extend their support to Mr. Rajnath Singh. That left the lone LCP MLA, Mr. Vikramajit Maurya, to keep Mr. Agrawal company.

After arriving here from New Delhi in the noon, Mr. Agarwal claimed the support of six MLAs, three of whom - Mr. Vikramajit Maurya, Mr. Bachcha Pathak and Mr. Vinay Pandey - were with him while he addressed presspersons. By evening Mr. Bachcha Pathak and Mr. Vinay Pandey had decided to support Mr. Rajnath Singh.

The new LCP legislature group has left the issue of electing a party president to the workers. Mr. Agrawal was so far functioning as the chief of the LCP both within and outside the legislature.

On his dismissal, Mr. Agrawal charged that the Chief Minister had stabbed him in the back. While in the Government, he was trying to play the role of the Opposition and was expressing his opinion on important issues. His speech at Hardwar earlier this week was no different in tone and tenor from what he had said earlier, he said. But while his earlier statements had been ignored, this time the Chief Minister decided to dismiss him from the Cabinet.

Mr. Agrawal said the party cadres were angry because they were being treated shabbily by the BJP leaders. He had brought this fact to light time and again but in vain.

He said he had also demanded Assembly elections in October this year instead of March next year. This had rattled the BJP leadership. Now he would go to the people and ``expose the real face of the communal BJP''.

Mr. Agrawal accepted that he had very close relations with the Samajwadi Party leader, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav. However, he had still to take a decision on forming an electoral alliance with any party, he said.

Prove majority: Mayawati

The Bahujan Samaj Party leader, Ms. Mayawati, today demanded that the Chief Minister summon the Assembly immediately and prove his majority on the floor of the House. ``In case the Chief Minister failed to do so, the Centre should dismiss him,'' she said, claiming that the BJP-led Government had lost its majority in the Assembly following withdrawal of support to it by the LCP.

Dismiss Govt.: Cong.

PTI reports:

The U.P. Congress demanded the dismissal of the Rajnath Singh Government and imposition of President's rule saying the BJP-led Government had lost its majority.

A Government mustering support through ``horse-trading'' should not be allowed to continue, it said.

A delegation of Congress leaders met the Governor, Mr. Vishnu Kant Shastri, and submitted a memorandum demanding imposition of Central rule leading to fresh elections.

BJP rejects demand

The BJP rejected the Opposition's demand for convening a special Assembly session, saying the ``dismissal of a Minister is the prerogative of the Chief Minister and there is no tradition to summon the Assembly after a dismissal.'' The party spokesman, Mr. Hriday Narain Dixit, also rejected the demand for imposition of President's rule.

In New Delhi, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav demanded the immediate dismissal of Rajnath Singh Government. Asked whether Mr. Agarwal had met him to explore new political equations, Mr. Mulayam Yadav evaded a direct reply saying his relationship with him was cordial. ``We may have ideological differences, but personally we are very close.''

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