UP BJP leaders arrive

NEW DELHI, JUNE 11: In a sudden development late on Saturday night, the entire Uttar Pradesh BJP brass, including Chief Minister Ram Praka...

NEW DELHI, JUNE 11: In a sudden development late on Saturday night, the entire Uttar Pradesh BJP brass, including Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta, arrived here amidst speculation that a change of guard in the state was imminent.

Gupta, accompanied by state PWD minister Kalraj Mishra and urban affairs minister Lalji Tandon, arrived here at 10.30 pm. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Minister for Home Affairs L K Advani and BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre will meet Gupta, Mishra and Tandon, besides Union Minister for Surface Transport Rajnath Singh first separately and then together after 9 am tomorrow. Rajnath has emerged as the frontrunner in the race to succeed Gupta.

The state BJP leaders had held a meeting at the state party headquarters in Lucknow on Saturday afternoon, ostensibly to discuss the party’s preparedness for the ongoing panchayat polls.

Story continues below this ad

Party general secretary in-charge of UP K N Govindacharya too had a couple of meetings with UP leaders in Lucknow yesterday. Govindacharya also called on Thakre this evening, apparently to discuss the change of guard in the state.

The party had initially planned to replace the Chief Minister only in July after both panchayat polls and organisational elections of the BJP in the state were over. But Gupta’s inability to conduct the panchayat polls peacefully seems to have been his undoing.

BJP workers have clashed with those of its allies, the Loktantrik Congress and the Jantantrik BSP, in a number of districts. The situation reached a flashpoint in Hardoi where state power minister Naresh Agarwal is alleged to have got the official BJP candidate “abducted” to facilitate unopposed election of his younger brother, Mukesh, for the post of zilla panchayat member.

Bowing to the BJP cadre’s demand, Gupta yesterday ordered a CID inquiry into the Hardoi incident, leaving Agarwal fuming. The infuriated power minister yesterday threatened to sever his ties with the BJP and align with either the BSP or the SP for next year’s assembly elections.