Naidu shifts from neutral

Shortly after Naidu announced in Hyderabad that his party was dissociating from the UF, Balayogi filed his nomination, while Speaker of the dissolved Lok Sabha P A Sangma filed his papers on behalf of the Opposition Congress and the UF.

This was followed by extensionof support to the TDP nominee by another Front constituent — the National Conference — which, together with the TDP and the Asom Gana Parishad, formed a new national front to offer issue-based support to the new government.

The BJP is said to have offered two Cabinet portfolios to the TDP –Agriculture and Rural Development and a special package for Andhra Pradesh, in addition to the Speakership, in exchange for its support. Sources said that BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan spoke to Chandrababu Naidu last night and L K Advani and Vajpayee spoke to him this morning to clinch the agreement. A media baron from Andhra Pradesh is said to have been the mediator between Naidu and the BJP.

The Speaker’s election has now practically turned into a trial of strength even before the actual vote of confidence. Sangma will contest though he had earlier stated that he would do so only if he was a consensus candidate. Sources said he put aside his desire to pull out after the Congress insisted that he enter thefray.

Despite the setback, moves are on by the Congress-UF to stymie Balayogi’s chances. Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar got in touch with Haryana Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chautala to seek the support of the party’s four MPs for Sangma. The Congress is also working on MPs from the North-East, banking on their regional loyalties. There are three such MPs who have pledged their support to the BJP, besides the Arunachal Congress’s two. But the latter are not likely to change sides since Gegong Apang’s son, Umak Apang, has been made minister in the BJP-led government.

A contest is also likely for the post of Deputy Speaker next month. The BJP leadership is determined to see that this post goes to an MP from their party. The Deputy Speaker has generally played a low-key role but this could change if the BJP has its way.

Omar, Farooq Abdullah’s son, is also expected to be be given a ministerial post whenever the National Conference joins the government — expected in the near future.The BJP’sabout-turn on supporting Sangma as a consensus candidate has effectively put an end to the politics of "cooperation and consensus" that Vajpayee had appealed for only last night in his address to the nation. The UF, which stands splintered now, is understandably on the warpath; and the Congress is incensed that it was led up the garden path by the BJP leaders.

Until this morning, the BJP had led the Congress to believe that it would back Sangma. Sangma said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana had telephoned him at 8.30 am to congratulate him, saying he would be elected unopposed as Speaker.

At 10 am, Congress leader Sharad Pawar — who had been holding talks on the issue with BJP president Advani since the last three days — and P Shiv Shankar met Advani. It was then that Advani indicated for the first time that the BJP would get the TDP’s support and that his alliance’s candidate would be from the TDP.

Pawar later told journalists that when he asked Advani for the name of the candidate,Advani said he did not know. Pawar assailed the BJP-led government’s approach to consensus on the Speaker’s issue and wondered how there could be unanimity on a TDP member whose name was not known even to the BJP till this morning.

Advani explained that if the BJP alliance had accepted Sangma as the consensus candidate "it would have conveyed the weakness of the combine and that we do not have a majority". "We don’t have anything against Sangma as a person," he told journalists.

It seems that though the BJP had opened lines of communication with Naidu some time ago, it was not sure until the last minute whether he would abandon his "equidistance" stand and go with the BJP.

A day of intrigues

NEW DELHI: Here is the chronology of events which led to the BJP’s coup on the Lok Sabha Speaker:

8 am — Chandrababu Naidu telephoned Atal Behari Vajpayee agreeing to cooperate with the BJP on the issue of the Lok Sabha Speaker. He suggested the BJP back a TDP Speaker, and agreed to support theparty in the confidence vote.

8.30 am — Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana telephoned Sangma and congratulated him, saying that he would be the consensus candidate for Speaker, and that the BJP had decided to support him. He asked Sangma to go ahead and file his nomination papers. Madan Lal Khurana told him that Advani would be officially communicating the decision to Pawar and Vajpayee would make an announcement to this effect at BJP meet at 9.30.

8.30 am — Advani called up Sharad Pawar, seeking to postpone their prearranged meeting, which had been fixed by both the previous day, from 9.15 am to 10.30 am because of the parliamentary party meet.

9 am — Congress leaders Sharad Pawar, P Upendra and Prithviraj Chavan arrived at Sangma’s residence and congratulated him.

9.30 am — Sangma signed the papers giving his consent for his nomination as Lok Sabha Speaker.

10.30 am — Advani talked to Sharad Pawar and sought his support for a TDP candidate. Pawar asked him who the person was.Advani said he did not know but would know very soon. Pawar expressed his surprise and reminded him that the Lok Sabha Speaker was the head of parliamentary institutions and guided state assemblies across the country. Given the pressure of time, as nominations closed at noon, Advani and Pawar decided to go ahead and file the nomination papers of their respective candidates and meet again at 12.30 to reconsider the possibility of evolving a consensus.

10.35 am — Khurana saw Sangma in the Central Hall of Parliament and told him that a problem had cropped up, but did not spell it out.

11.00 am — Prithviraj Chavan filed the first set of Sangma’s papers, with Pawar proposing his name and P Shiv Shankar seconding it.

11.22 am — Word came from Hyderabad that TDP had dissociated itself from the United Front.

11.51 am — Word again from Hyderabad that Chandrababu Naidu had resigned as Front convenor.

11.55 am — Ghanti Mohana C Balayogi came rushing into Parliament building where near panicky BJP leaderswaited for him at the gate. His plane from Hyderabad had been delayed. The BJP had in the meantime readied the papers also of K Yerranaidu, TDP Minister in the UF Cabinet, as a stepnee. They rushed Balayogi to the room of the Lok Sabha Secretary General.

11.58 am — Balayogi gave his consent to be Speaker in writing. He was proposed by Vajpayee and seconded by Advani. The second set of papers proposing the name of Yerranaidu were also filed. Balayogi told mediapersons that he was informed by Chandrababu Naidu at 7.30 am that he had to go to Delhi and file his nomination papers immediately to become the Lok Sabha Speaker. He caught the plane to Delhi. "I don’t know anything else," he said later at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan. A dazed Balayogi was still clutching the certificate from the Election Commission declaring him elected. He was accompanied by Bandaru Dattatreya.

12.30 pm — Advani met Pawar and told him that there was no scope for reconsideration of their decision to back Balayogi. Pawar told him, "It isa good beginning" for consensus building.

Sometime in the morning — Farooq Abdullah telephoned Vajpayee and assured the Prime Minister of the support of the National Conference in the election of the Speaker.

8 pm — A fax message was sent from the PM’s house signed by four MPs from the North East, refuting Sangma’s claim that the newly elected MPs from the North East would be supporting him. Those who signed were the two MPs belonging to the Arunachal Congress, Bhim Singh Dahal of the Sikkim Democratic front and H Lallungmuana, an Independent from Mizoram.