NEW DELHI, April 17: The embattled Bharatiya Janata Party sought to win over its secular coalition partners on Wednesday by deferring plans for early elections in riot-torn Gujarat state, and firmed up an alliance with a rival party.
The moves appeared to ensure the survival of the 30-month-old BJP-led government, and the BJP’s leader in Gujarat, but concerns remain over the party’s Hindu revivalist leanings which sparked the most serious political revolt since it took power in 1999.
Leaders of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s coalition said there were no plans to hold elections immediately in Gujarat, which many saw as a cynical ploy to exploit communal divides following the worst anti-Muslim violence in a decade.
“There has been no talk of immediatedly dissolving the state assembly and going for elections,” Defence Minister George Fernandes — the government’s most powerful non-BJP minister — said after a meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has faced the wrath of the opposition and coalition allies for failing to control violence which killed over 800 people, said his administration was focused on relief work in the once-prosperous state.
“My priority is to wipe the tear from every eye,” Modi, who denies accusations police turned a blind eye to reprisal killings of Muslims by Hindus, said after a meeting of the state cabinet.
At least three people were stabbed to death and 15 others were injured in the state in fresh clashes between Hindus and Muslims, police said on Wednesday.
Rioters pelted stones and hurled crudely made bombs at each other in at least three different areas of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city.
STITCHES TOGETHER ALLIANCE: BJP leaders, faced with the threat of a revolt by its largest partner, the southern Telugu Desam (TDP), over the bloodletting, also sought to cover their flanks by striking an alliance with a rival party for power in the most populous Uttar Pradesh state.
The BJP would become the junior partner to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the northern state’s government.In return, 13 BSP lawmakers would support it in the national parliament, shoring up the BJP position as head of the ruling 20-party coalition.
“We are heading for a BJP-BSP coalition in Uttar Pradesh,” former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh said.
If the TDP, which has 28 lawmakers in the 545-member national parliament, were to cut off support, the federal coalition would still command a majority, but would be seriously weakened.
“We have placed two demands, one, change the leadership in Gujarat, and second, this is not proper time for elections,” said Yerran Naidu, leader of the parliamentary wing of Telugu Desam.
But the BJP, emboldened by prospects of a new alliance, challenged the opposition to a vote in the national parliament.
“We will prove it in the floor of parliament,” Rural Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said, adding there was no question of giving into demands to sack Modi.
Officials say more than 800 people, mostly Muslims, have died in the Gujarat violence, which started on February 27 when a Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu activists, burning 59 people to death. Human rights groups put the death toll from the violence at nearer to 2,000 or even higher.
Both houses of parliament were adjourned for a third successive day amid uproar over opposition demands to sack Modi and stop elections in the state.
“We will not compromise on the issue unless the centre removes Modi, the aim is to throw communal forces out,” former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda said as he joined an opposition march from parliament to protest against the killings in Gujarat.
The BJP has long been accused of a bias against the country’s 120 million Muslims.—Reuters
