NEW DELHI, Jan 11: Fearing a repetition of its Delhi misadventure, the Bharatiya Janata Party today gave Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh a reprieve by deciding not to replace him despite pressures from within the party and its allies in the State. Singh has been camping in Delhi since yesterday to save his job, following speculation that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Lucknow tomorrow would seal his fate.``There is no move to replace Kalyan Singh,'' party president Kushabhau Thakre told a group of journalists after holding an hour-and-a-half-long meeting with Singh on Monday morning. Singh also met Home Minister L K Advani later in the day. He emerged beaming from the meeting and told correspondents he had been assured he would stay on as CM.For the past month, Singh's job has been on the line with his partymen as well as allies asking for his head. What appears to have saved him, for the moment at least, is the lack of an alternative in caste-ridden UP. Although BJP leadersin UP, backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh top brass, have been pushing for a Brahmin Chief Minister, the party was hesitant to make a move that would reaffirm its upper caste image in a Mandalised state. And it could not find a suitable Other Backward Caste or Dalit candidate for the Chief Minister's post.The BJP leadership also appears to have been influenced by its experience in Delhi where a last-minute change of Chief Minister led to the collapse of the party in the recent Assembly polls. The shaky coalition run by the BJP in UP can collapse any time and its strategy in the State would feature in a possible mid-term election.As one observer put it, ``To retain Kalyan Singh is foolish but to change him would be stupid.''Although Singh appears to have got a reprieve, party circles feel that the breather may be only temporary. Even his supporters in the BJP agree that Singh is running an unpopular government which has failed to deal with the problems of the State. His coterie politics and theway he has been flaunting his OBC identity have earned him the wrath of upper caste party workers. With the Congress showing stirrings of revival, BJP strategists fear that its upper caste base may shift back to the former and are desperate to prevent this. Party circles feel the pressure to replace Singh with an upper caste Chief Minister will remain.For now, the breather for Singh makes for a smooth visit for Vajpayee to Lucknow tomorrow. The PM is scheduled to have lunch at the Chief Minister's residence besides participating in the Iftar party hosted by Urban Development Minister Lalji Tandon, one of the prominent Kalyan-baiters.In his meetings with Thakre and Advani today, Singh is believed to have complained about the erosion of authority of the office of Chief Minister, caused by rumours of his imminent removal. People tend to believe such rumours if they emanate from within the ruling party, he said. Advani and Thakre promised that the dissidents would be quietened. Thakre even gave Singh aclean chit in front of correspondents. ``Most of the problems like economic crisis are not his creation. He inherited empty coffers. A jumbo Cabinet in UP was a necessity in the circumstances in which the Kalyan Singh Government was formed,'' he said.
