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Politics Business Expressions General Sports Leisure States 11 January 1998   BJP may avoid vital issues to calm allies The Bhartiya Janata Party's (BJP) balancing act with its electoral partners seems to be showing no signs of stopping. Giving into its allies' demands, the BJP through its leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has offered to steer clear of controversial issues such as Ayodhya, uniform civil code and Article 370 in the event of joint campaigning by the BJP and its allies.   Hegde-BJP alliance will affect JD prospects: Patel Chief Minister J H Patel has expressed concern over the Lok Shakti leader Ramkrishna Hegde's decision to align with BJP as it is likely to affect the ruling Janata Dal's (JD) prospects in the Lok Sabha elections, at least in Karnataka. Patel opined that Hegde's tie-up with the BJP would demolish his image as a practitioner of value-based politics. Maurya leaves Cong, Kalpnath joins Samata In what is the first major fallout of Sonia Gandhi's moves towards joining the Congress to enter mainstream politics with poll '98, former union minister B P Maurya resigned from the party's primary membership. Maurya Narayanan favours fixed term for LS The President K R Narayanan has said that a fixed term for the Lok Sabha like that enjoyed by Rajya Sabha members would be a good idea if accompanied by a reform of the electoral system. Narayan put forth this idea in light of the possibility of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections also giving a hung Parliament. Narayanan, however, added the proposal will also need to be accompanied by various other reforms in the electoral process   Anantrao Thopte, too, set to ditch Congress Former Congress minister and die-hard Sharad Pawar opponent, MLA Anantrao Thopte, is poised to switch allegiance to the Shiv Sena. This move will further erode the already depleted Congress bastion which has seen a lot of members defecting in recent times. MDMK seeks more seats; talks aborted The talks between MDMK and AIADMK (J) on seat-sharing for Lok Sabha elections, were inconclusive on Friday evening. While the MDMK continued to insist on allocation of the second highest number of seats to the front, the AIADMK (J) leadership rejected this demand by stating that some of its other allies had also sought the same seats and therefore a decision on the MDMK demand could be taken only after talks with them.     Rabri Devi's home truth   Rawale lands seat courtesy Uddhav, Joshi   Do your bit, Sena minister tells SEMs   Sena to play Pradeep Jaiswal, a safe bet, from Aurangabad   Punjab Congress pacifies BSP-shy dissident group   VHP mum on Purohit's political fate   BJP debates saffron washout   Partyline   Ravi Naik's seat issue ignites factional war in Goa Congress   SP's big brother posture alienates UF partners   Raid to "remove" proof against Kerala CM's son