BJP may finally back Kalmadi

quot;On the basis of our strength in the House, we require 41 votes for the victory of Pramod Mahajan. However, we are planning to allot him 45 votes to ensure his election. Out of the 21 remaining surplus votes, we will have to allocate at least 16 votes to the Shiv Sena for its second candidate. Then we are left with five votes, which will be allotted to Kalmadi,quot; the BJP leader said.

The BJP leader admitted that his party was caught undecided on allocation of its surplus votes. quot;There were two candidates before us 8212; newspaper owner Vijay Darda, who has the moral support ofCongress leader Sharad Pawar, and Suresh Kalmadi. We chose Kalmadi since he has already declared that he would support the Atal Behari Vajpayee government at the Centre. In addition, he had also unsuccessfully contested the Pune Lok Sabha election with the support of the BJP,quot; the BJP leader added.

Referring to the controversial candidature of Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, the BJP leader said in view of the candidature of Arun Mehta, now it was essential to support Gidwani, who is official candidate of the Shiv Sena. quot;Initially, we had opposed his candidature since we feared that he will pose threat to our third candidate for the Legislative Council. Now we feel that if we oppose Gidwani, then it will help Mehta to make a clean sweep,quot; the BJP leader added.However, spelling out the official stance, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi said in Pandharpur that he was sure of Gidwani eventually withdrawing from the fray.

The candidature of Gidwani had sparked off a row in the alliance prompting Thackeray to clarify that ifit was in the interests of the alliance, he would not hesitate to ask Gidwani to withdraw.