BJP demands Bhandari's recall

The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded the ouster of Uttar Pradesh Governor Romesh Bhandari to facilitate ''smooth functioning'' of the state government.

BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj, briefing the media after the Kalyan Singh government in the state survived the vote of confidence on the floor of the assembly, accused Bhandari of playing a ''dirty role'' from his stint as Tripura governor onwards.

''He (Bhandari) has no respect for democracy. He is a highly ambitious person," says Swaraj. "He'll do anything to achieve his ambitions,'' she added.

The crux of the BJP's grouse against Bhandari lies in the fact that this is the first time that a mere 24 hours was given to any chief minister to prove his majority in the house.

''It was expected to be nothing, but a formality," Swaraj said. "Bhandari had been promised that Kalyan Singh would not be able to prove his majority.''

Swaraj said the BJP had learnt, from sources, that following the split in the Congress and the Janata Dal, when it began to look as though the BJP government would survive the vote of confidence, the governor had in fact ''recommended dissolution of the assembly."

Swaraj said she and Jaswant Singh, deputy leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha, spoke to Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral on receipt of the information, and asked that due process not be tampered with. "The prime minister assured us that he would not allow any unfavourable action during the vote of confidence," Swaraj said.

A BJP delegation headed by party president Lal Kishinchand Advani also met President K R Narayanan and urged him not to accept accept any recommendation for dissolution of the assembly before voting took place. President Narayanan is understood to have assured the delegation that the Constitution would be followed in both letter and spirit.

Swaraj expressed the party's ''gratitude'' to both the President and prime minister for upholding the traditions of democracy, while at the same time condemning the state governor for interfering in the independent functioning of the assembly speaker. By sending observers for the vote of confidence, the governor had questioned the speaker's impartiality, Swaraj argued.

Swaraj's contention was that the House is supreme, that even if one member demanded division, that demand had to be met. "In any case, what was the necessity of resorting to lobby voting?" she demanded.

Giving the break-up of votes (222, to be exact) secured by the BJP, Swaraj said that the BJP accounted for 174 (the speaker, who is a member of the party, did not cast his vote), the UP Lok Tantrik Dal accounted for 22, Samata Party 2, Janata Dal (Pandey group) 3, Independents 9 and BSP 12.

And now that the crisis in UP has been resolved, Kalyan Singh will head for New Delhi to attend the BJP parliamentary board meeting convened to take stock of developments in Gujarat, Swaraj told the media.