BJP rebels fire at Maya from 8 other shoulders

The decision by the group of Independents was preceded by a meeting — at Raja Bhaiyya’s residence — at which nearly 10 BJP legislators were also present. ‘‘Operation Topple Mayawati has begun. Wait and see how our number will rise, forcing her to quit’’, claimed Ganga Bhakt Singh, BJP MLA, who’s spearheading the dissident movement.

Mindful of the numbers game, the besieged state BJP today suspended party MLC Ramashees Rai with immediate effect, deferring action against the MLAs who had also raised the banner of revolt within the party.

‘‘The arithmetic is in our favour, there is no threat to the BSP-BJP government. The process of disciplinary action has been started from today and it will continue’’, said state party chief Vinay Katiyar after holding extended meetings with other senior leaders of the party.

The BJP dissidents, however, claimed that the action against Ramasheesh wouldn’t affect their campaign. ‘‘Our demand is that all ministers belonging to the BJP should quit and support to Mayawati government should be extended from outside. Corruption and immorality have crept into the BJP’’, said Ganga Bhakt Singh.

The party’s troubleshooter Rajnath Singh said he hoped that the present crisis would be over within a couple of days. ‘‘The party MLAs are not disgruntled because all of them have not been made ministers but they complained that the constituencies which they represent could not get proper development schemes despite them being the party in power’’, said Rajnath.

While the BJP leadership used discipline to intimidate its rebels, the Mayawati government used the police to keep the majority on its side. The premises of Independent MLA Dhananjay Singh was raided today and his nephew arrested under the Arms Act while a majority of the other Independents are likely to face similar action soon.

‘‘The Government is misusing the police force but we won’t change our mind. The police have raided premises of four MLAs and MLCs who have joined the anti-government campaign but it hasn’t dampened our morale’’, said Raja Bhaiya.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party camp, bristling with activity till last evening, has again become forlorn following departure of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh from the state capital. Amar has already signaled that he meant business when he had gone to residence of Raja Bhaiya on Thursday where he also met a number of BJP legislators.