NEW DELHI, NOV 6: Even as top BJP leaders have authorised Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to take ``corrective measures'' with regard to Uttar Pradesh, leaders of the Bihar party unit have demanded that the action be delayed till the Assembly elections are held, fearing that Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's removal may trigger off a backlash by the backward classes in Bihar.Union Home Minister L K Advani told UP leaders on Thursday that the decision had been left solely on the Prime Minister. Vajpayee is likely to implement a comprehensive package to resolve the UP imbroglio. But, anxious to ensure that the BJP-Janata Dal (United) alliance does well in the Assembly elections scheduled in Bihar before March next, leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Sushil Kumar Modi and state BJP chief Nand Kishore Yadav submitted a four-point package before their party high command during the two-day national executive meeting which ended on Thursday. The BJP top brass is learnt to have assured the two Bihar partyleaders that they would look into the issues raised by them.While outlining the components of the package, the Modi-Yadav duo urged their party high command to ensure that each of the four points would be taken care of so that the alliance's preparations for the Assembly elections were not derailed.``Singh's removal at this juncture might give Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav a handle to whip up hysteria along backward-forward lines,'' Modi is reported to have told the senior party leaders. Meanwhile, Kalyan has said he had not been told by the party high command to submit his resignation. Speaking to newspersons in Lucknow on Friday, he declared that he would continue as the Chief Minister. He also urged the party leaders to analyse the state poll results and pinpoint the reasons behind the defeat.But, party general secretary M. Venkaiah Naidu asserted on Friday that the political instability in the state would be resolved within a week. Vajpayee too dropped hints of theimpending action when in his valedictory address on Thursday, he endorsed senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj's criticism of the State BJP leadership and the State Government.The BJP's tally would have crossed 200 had the party not suffered losses in UP, making the path of its Government nishkantak (without hurdles), Vajpayee is reported to have said. Outlining the reasons for the party's debacle in the state, he said the BJP candidates were not defeated by their rivals but by their own colleagues.Earlier, while analysing the UP results, Sushma had expressed similar views and had advocated strong steps to stem the rot. The PM has short-listed the names of State PWD Minister Kalraj Mishra, Assembly Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi and Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Santosh Gangwar as possible successors of Kalyan Singh. Senior party leaders claimed that Mishra was likely to emerge as the consensus candidate. They also said that only Kalyan's removal was unlikely to set things right in UP,emphasising the need for a comprehensive overhaul.
