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BJP hurls another challenge at Jaya

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Pramod Mahajan today demanded that AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha provide ''prima facie'' evidence in regard to her allegations that someone close to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had received bribes for transferring Enforcement Director M K Bezbaruah, so that the government can initiate an inquiry.

''There has to be some prima facie evidence for an inquiry,'' he said in Delhi on Tuesday.

Indirectly referring to Dr Subramanian Swamy, Mahajan said some politicians were in the habit of making ''wild allegations,'' but he did not think that Jayalalitha belonged to ''this kind'' of politicians.

He described as ''absurd'' Jayalalitha's statement that she had not sought Bezbaruah's transfer. He described Bezbaruah's successor, Javed Chaudhary, as an upright officer.

He said there was not much of a problem in removing an officer from the post at the request of a supporting party, but ''an ally cannot dictate who should be appointed in his place.''

Describing the transfers of senior officers as ''routine'' and done by all governments, he said while the BJP government had effected 12 transfers in the past five months, the previous governments in a period of one year had transferred 12 officers on June 17, 1995, 13 officers on April 27,1995 and 16 officers on January 2, 1996.

Mahajan said it was unfortunate that an ally had levelled such allegations against the government. He asserted there was no threat to the government for the time being. All the allies are with it. ''There could be some misunderstanding, but that can be sorted out,'' he said.

The fact remained that none of the allies had withdrawn support, he said, and termed as hypothetical the question what the BJP's contingency plan would be if its coalition partners withdrew support.

"If our government failed, no other party can either provide a stable government or survive in the present situation. The BJP has the largest number of members in the Lok Sabha -- 180 -- while the second largest party had about 40 MPs less," Mahajan said.

In the given situation, he said, only the Vajpayee government could exist. If it failed, it would lead to another general election which would neither be good for the country nor for the people.

Quizzed about Minister of State for Personnel K R Janarthanan's charge that he was not consulted on Bezbaruah's transfer, Mahajan said as far as he knew it was not obligatory on the prime minister's part to consult his ministers for the appointment of officers.

BJP sources, meanwhile, said the party had made up its mind not to give into threats by any of its allies and was ready to face any consequences. ''There is no point in running the government like this,'' the sources said, referring to some ''undue'' demands raised by its allies recently. "The maximum will be another election, we are prepared for it.''

UNI

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