Maya crunches numbers: 2 rebels jailed, 3 back in fold

Senior BJP leader Kushabhau Thakre was camping in Lucknow to oversee the internal fire-fighting operation. Sources said a majority of the rebels had developed second thoughts because of an uncertain future and the fear of losing their assembly membership. Apart from Puran Singh Bundela — the ‘victim’ of the arrests — those won back by the BJP leadership were Narendra Sisodia and Ravindra Singh Pundir, MLAs, and Avadhpal Singh Yadav, MLC.

Mayawati chose her targets well, for the two arrested, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya and Dhananjay Singh, were the key dissidents. Since the bulk of rebels belonged to the Rajput community, their arrest could easily become a caste issue, but for the fact that Bundela was a fellow Rajput.

Thakre and senior state party leaders, according to sources, had heard the dissidents and assured them of a sincere effort to gradually address their grievances, but had ruled out any immediate action like an expansion of the Mayawati ministry or a replacement of Urban Development Minister Lalji Tandon as the BJP legislature party leader.

There was a realisation that the malaise was actually deeper than what was being perceived. Mutual distrust among senior state leaders and their tendency to pull each other down was behind the trouble. Kalraj Mishra had pointed at this when he resigned as state president on June 1, but the Central leadership in Delhi, busy with other national issues, had ignored the alarm bells sounded by him.