Rajnath takes over as UP CM

It is a different matter that he himself has been able to win only one election, that too during the Janata wave of 1977. He has spent the rest of his political career in the legislative council and the Rajya Sabha.

He was in the fray for the chief minister’s post for the past one-and-half years because of his behaviour, personality, his decision to take Kalyan Singh’s challenge head-on and his luck. He very nearly made to the top job in the state in May and July. But all the other leaders of the state joined hands against him in the previous two occasions.

This time round, the same leaders who earlier came to Ram Prakash Gupta’s rescue lobbied against him with the Prime Minister. This sealed the septuagenarian leader’s fate.

But the change in leadership is not likely to be accompanied by any qualitative change in the style of governance and the party because leadership never emerged as the sole problem. A jumbo-sized government will be formed again and the allies will continue to blackmail the chief minister.

The state’s economy continues to be in doldrums and the legislators will extract their price. Singh will have to face the challenge thrown by Mulayam Singh Yadav on the one hand and Mayawati on the other to break new ground. Kalyan Singh will be ready to settle old scores with him.

But Rajnath sounded confident. “This sounds strange when anyone says that a big challenge is ahead for me as the chief minister. But I assure you that within three months things will change and I am sure that we will come again with full majority in next elections,” he said in his first address to party legislators at the official residence of the chief minister today.

It is another matter that he knows that putting the BJP back on rails through his governance will be a daunting task.

With the BJP government’s majority set to come down to two after the formation of Uttaranchal, winning support of more legislators will be the primary concern for Rajnath. He had done it earlier when he persuaded Congress and the BSP legislators to lent support to Kalyan Government. This time he will need to do it for ensuring his longevity.

Party sources said efforts have already been initiated to identify soft targets in the Congress and the Janata Dal camps because these are the only parties where the MLAs could be lured still. “We can offer them ministerial berths,” said a senior party leader on condition of anonymity.

Another hassle which the new CM will have to deal with will be the out-of-control bureaucracy. During the Gupta regime the bureaucracy was running the show.

Singh’s supporters believe that he would be able to set the things right but at this stage it appears a daunting task. “Improvement of the law and order situation will be among my priority. This does not mean that the law and order situation has deteriorated during the regime of Gupta but there is always scope for improvement. People want the situation to improve further and we will have to take actions. Besides it, problems of farmers, students, poor and employees will also have to be tackled as per resources available with the government,” said Rajnath when asked about his immediatepriorities.

Rajnath has assumed command of the state at a time when civic polls are round the corner and going by the thin majority of his government possibility of snap polls cannot be ruled out.