``The alliance partners have decided to stay away from the Cabinet meetings until the leadership issue is resolved,'' leader of the Janata Dal (R) and Khadi Gramudyog Minister Raja Ram Pandey told newsmen here.

Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party (JBSP) was the only ally of BJP represented in today's meeting, and its Minister Markandey Chand said that he and his party colleagues were there only to ensure that ``any move by the Chief Minister (Kalyan Singh) to recommend dissolution of the Assembly is scuttled.'' Stating that the alliance partners were strongly against the dissolution of the Assembly, Raja Ram Pandey said, ``We want the BJP leadership to unanimously elect the leader and sort out theirdifferences.''He maintained that the support of the alliance partners was to the BJP and not to any individual.

Pandey added that the alliance partners wanted the BJP leadership to sort out the issue at the earliest. Another JBSP Minister Yashwant Singh, who attended the meeting, said since a dispute had arisen over the leadership of Kalyan Singh, the BJP should elect some other leader acceptable to all in the party.

Power Minister and Loktantrik Congress President Naresh Agarwal and Programme Implementation Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh (who heads a group of eight Independents) did not attend the Cabinet meeting along with several of their colleagues. They refused to speak to the press.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister denied there was any boycott by alliance partners and said that the ``abstention by some Ministers was a routine affair''.

Irrigation Minister Om Prakash Singh, a close confidante of Kalyan Singh, sought immediate intervention of BJP high command over the issue, to end infighting in theparty.

He also demanded stern action against those who, by giving public statements, were indulging in ``anti-party activities''.

He replied in the affirmative, when asked whether he was also demanding action against the Chief Minister for making his statements public on the leadership issue.

``Everyone is included in attempts to defame the party and the high command should look into all these,'' he said, adding the happenings of the past few months would only lead to erosion of the party's vote bank.

``If it is not checked now, BJP's fate is doomed in the State,'' Om Prakash Singh remarked, and added that ``whatever may be the differences, these should be sorted out at an appropriate forum, without making them public''.The party should also ponder over why there was always dissension in the party over the functioning of its leaders, he said.

Referring to the party's functioning in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, he said differences between the workers and the leadership in thepast have remained a subject of discussion, and this only led to BJP's poor performance on and of.