LUCKNOW, November 5: Former Chief Minister Mayawati has threatened to move court if Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi continued to dither on the issue of defection by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs.

``We will move court and reduce the ministers to non-entity if the Speaker does not take a decision on the issue tomorrow,'' she said while addressing a Bhaichara Rally at the BHM park here on Wednesday.

After repeated letters from Mayawati, the Speaker has agreed to hear the case tomorrow. BSP is mounting pressure that all the 13 MLAs who violated the party whip during the October 21 confidence vote should be disqualified following provisions of Anti-defection Law.

Today's rally, which was the first major political expression of the BSP leaders after the party withdrew support to Kalyan Government on October 19, received a lukewarm response. Despite elaborate preparations to make the rally a grand success, the crowd at the venue was much smaller than that at the earlier shows held by the Dalit party to demonstrate its strength. The evident lack of public enthusiasm also gave a severe jolt to efforts of a joint anti-BJP forum in the State.

Both Mayawati and the BSP supremo Kanshi Ram dwelt at length on ``morality'' and ``corrupt practices'' of their erstwhile partner, BJP, and also drew parallels between Kalyan Singh and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, putting at rest speculation over a likely realignment of non-BJP political forces in the State.

``Kalyan Singh speaks the language of Mulayam Singh Yadav,'' said the former chief minister while unleashing a verbal onslaught on functioning of the BJP Government. She said all the parties were jittery when the BSP had protected Dalits from harassment by strictly enforcing the SC/ST (Prevention of atrocities) Act. The Government Order issued by Kalyan Singh soon after he took over the reins of the State reflected the BJP's lurking fear that BSP was buttressing its support base through the SC/ST Act, she added.

Reacting strongly to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and high-level administrative inquiry recommended by the Kalyan Government to probe into misuse of funds for Ambedkar Park and allotment of plots in greater NOIDA, she reiterated that inquiry into the park was aimed at clipping wings of the two BJP ministers, Kalraj Mishra and Lalji Tandon. ``They were in-charge of the two departments, Public Works Department and Urban Development, looking after the park. Where do I come in the picture?'' she quipped.

On the Greater NOIDA issue, she said the concerned file did not come to her during her tenure as the Chief Minister and hence there was ``no question of a scam''.

BSP supremo Kanshi Ram again termed the BJP a ``cobra'' and said that the party was a breeding ground for criminals and corrupt politicians. He alleged that BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Sundar Singh Bhandari had engineered defections. ``Each defector was given a sum of Rs 50 lakhs and a berth in the ministry and that too by a man (Advani) who ``himself is facing corruption charges in the Jain hawala case''.

He also alleged that during its rule so far, the BJP Government has done nothing except pushing up corruption and inducting criminals into the ministry.

Kanshi Ram also chose the opportunity to side with the jailed former chief minister of Bihar Laloo Prasad Yadav saying that he has been falsely implicated.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.