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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Party leaders in Uttar Pradesh are looking to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to resolve the infighting in the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has delayed the expansion of the eight-week old Mayawati-led BSP-BJP coalition government.
Vajpayee is arriving in Lucknow on June 27 for a closed-door session with prominent party leaders, who are considered as independent 'power centres'.
The tug-of-war between different lobbies within the BJP has also seen Chief Minister Mayawati making snide remarks about it.
Asked about the delay in the expansion of her Cabinet, she said, "The delay in not on our part; no sooner BJP is able to finalise its list, we will go ahead with the expansion."
She added, "We have decided to have a 50-50 share and as far as BSP is concerned, we are ready to give out the names of our nominees right away; but let's see how long our coalition partners take to decide."
There are 23 ministers in the Mayawati Cabinet with 13 belonging to the Bahujan Samaj Party, nine from BJP and two from Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Mayawati has also made it amply clear that she would not have a repeat of the jumbo Cabinet maintained by her three BJP predecessors -- Rajnath Singh, Ramprakash Gupta and Kalyan Singh.
Apparently, this stance of Mayawati seems to be posing a major problem for the BJP leadership, under pressure to accommodate a large number of MLAs.
BSP sources told rediff.com that she may not induct more than 50 ministers, which leaves only 25 for BJP and its allies.
A senior BJP minister, who is considered close to Prime Minister Vajpayee as well as Mayawati, told rediff.com, "I personally have doubts that we would be able to accommodate more than 20 of our partymen, as we have to allocate some berths to our allies as well."
He, however, said that pressure is being exerted by at least 50 BJP legislators, some of whom have threatened to quit the party, if denied a Cabinet berth.
He also admitted that three prominent leaders are also lobbying to get their men accommodated.
"In view of the prevailing situation, the prime minister alone would be able to get the list finalised," the minister said.
Infighting in the BJP came to fore when party state chief Kalraj Misra, who had gone to the extent of tendering his resignation, accused senior leaders of 'internal differences'.
He had also openly talked about the 'four power centres' and expressed the view that the party's fate could be turned only if these four leaders -- hinting at Rajnath Singh, Lalji Tandon, Om Prakash Singh and himself -- could only see eye-to-eye.
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