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BJP says it's ready for life without Jaya

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government will survive even if All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham supremo J Jayalalitha, in tune with her recent threat, withdraws support, Bharatiya Janata Party president Kushabhau Thakre said on Wednesday.

'It has survived many crises. It will survive this also,'' he told the media.

He, however, refused to comment on the failure of the talks between Jayalalitha and Vajpayee's emissaries -- Defence Minister George Fernandes and senior party leader Pramod Mahajan -- in Madras today.

"I have no information about the outcome of the talks," he said, "I am waiting for her (Jayalitha's) decision tomorrow. I have enough patience.''

"This threat is nothing new to us. Ever since we formed the government with her support she has been troubling us almost every month. So we have prepared (a plan) long back to tackle the situation in case she withdraws support," another senior leader told Rediff On The NeT on telephone from New Delhi.

The AIADMK chief had said that she would "review" her party's support to the government if it failed to notify the original draft scheme on the Cauvery water issue by August 13. The four riparian states had recently arrived at a fresh agreement for implementing the interim award of the Cauvery tribunal.

The BJP leader feels the government can prove its majority in the Lok Sabha even without the AIADMK and its allies, whose strength is 27. "There are many smaller parties, newly elected MPs and independents who do not want election at this juncture. I am sure these people will step in to support the government," the leader said.

The BJP leaders are of the opinion that there was no need for Jayalalitha to be disappointed about the new Cauvery agreement.

"The decision is historic. For the first time, the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala and Karnataka have arrived at a consensus," BJP vice-president K L Sharma said.

Sharma dismissed Jayalalitha's claim that the central government did not consult her over the notification. "We have always discussed matters with our allies before taking major decisions. She has no reason to complain," he said.

He was confident that the meeting with Jayalalitha would produce positive results.

"She had problems with us last month also. But it was solved after Fernandes met her," he said.

BJP senior vice-president K R Malkani, for his part, felt that the clouds would clear after Vajpayee has a talk with the AIADMK chief. "Even she knows that no party is in a position to form the government at the Centre, and that mid-term elections would be disastrous for the country considering the ongoing global recession," he said, "No political party can allow instability in the country."

When it was brought to his notice that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has announced her party's readiness to form a government if the present one falls, Malkani said: "First, the government won't fall. Second, I do not see any situation where the Congress can form the government -- they are far away from a majority."

Additional reportage: UNI

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