NEW DELHI, March 9: Even before veteran BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee could be called to form the next government at the Centre, three important allies J Jayalalitha's AIADMK, George Fernandes' Samata Party and Om Prakash Chautala's Haryana Lok Dal -- today reiterated their demand for the dismissal of their state governments.While Haryana is led by the HVP-BJP combine, Tamil Nadu and Bihar are governed by the DMK-TMC alliance and the RJD respectively.
Their stand is likely to make the going to tough for Vajpayee in the event of his anointment as the country's next Prime Minister. For, if he succumbs to their demands, he risks exposing the Maharashtra and Rajasthan governments, which are led by his party, to a similar fate. Party leaders admit in private circles that the veteran leader will have to utilise his vast administrative experience and political guile to satisfy the conflicting pressures. Of these, Jayalalitha and Chautala have offered to support the BJP-led government only from outside. Thishas made leaders of the BJP suspicious of their intent, and efforts are on to persuade them to join the government in order to make it more stable.
But these efforts have not yielded any results so far. Of course, to deter people from jumping to any conclusions, the two leaders have, for good measure, added that their support would be ``total and unconditional.''
Interestingly, while reiterating their demand, Jayalalitha and senior Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar did not take recourse to the mandate received by their parties in alliance with the BJP in their respective states of Tamil Nadu and Bihar. Instead, they have their couched their demand in the garb of the complete collapse of law and order machinery in their respective states.
``Our demand for the dismissal of the Rabri Devi government is not new,'' observed Kumar, ``In fact, we have been clamouring for its sacking for the last two years. There is a constitutional crisis in the state. Even the Patna High Court has said there is a jungle raj inthe state.''
Jayalalitha mouths a similar explanation. ``The Karunanidhi government has been flouting its oath to the Indian Constitution by encouraging terrorist activities in the state. Last time too, he had allowed a free run to the LTTE which culminated in the tragic assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
She also alleged that many senior leaders of the DMK were hobnobbing with religious fundamentalists and extremists. ``The Karunanidhi government has also encouraged infiltratrion of ISI-backed extremists, who had been carrying on their activities with the support of some foreign nations,'' she said.
