Chinks in the ranks of her coalition partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, prompted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati to bulldoze the no-confidence motion against her government on Wednesday.
Mayawati has a fairly comfortable numerical position in the 403-member assembly. But she was worried about the possibility of cross-voting by some disgruntled BJP and RLD members, which could have caused an upset.
While Mayawati was confident of her own Bahujan Samaj Party members, she was not so sure about some fence-sitters in the BJP, who had earlier rebelled against her.
She was also wary of possible cross-voting by at least five of the 14 RLD members, who are quite sore with their own party leadership.
Sources said the opposition was also banking on 23 thakur legislators of the BJP, who are upset at the continued hounding of independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiya. Singh, who is being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, is also a thakur.
Sensing trouble from that quarter, Mayawati put some of her trusted muscle-men, led by Amar Mani Tripathi, the controversial minister who was once arrested and removed from the Rajnath Singh ministry on a charge of kidnapping for ransom, on the job. The BSP toughs allegedly intimidated the fence-sitters, conveying their warning in no uncertain terms -- 'fall in line or face the music'.
While the Samajwadi Party-led opposition was trying to gauge its strength, the presiding officer hurriedly took up the no-trust motion and before anyone realised what was happening, declared it 'defeated'.
Speaker Keshri Nath Tripathi kept away from the proceedings. He is believed to have had a heated argument with Mayawati in his chamber. The chief minister allegedly wanted him to reject the no-trust notice on technical grounds, but Tripathi expressed his inability to do so as the notice was in order.
It is also learnt that Mayawati promptly spoke to Advani, who in turn chastised some of the prominent BJP leaders. Advani, who is obliged to Mayawati for granting him a reprieve in the Ayodhya case, reportedly told the BJP leaders to ensure full support for Mayawati.
Still, some of the legislators could have cross-voted to embarrass Advani as well as Mayawati. So, despite his assurance, the chief minister did not want to take any chances.