New Delhi, January 7
Despite persistent demands by the BJP and the BSP for Central intervention in Uttar Pradesh because of a breakdown in the law and order situation in the state, the Congress-led UPA government is unlikely to dismiss the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in Lucknow and impose President's rule.
The issue assumes significance because of the upcoming assembly elections in one of the most crucial states in the country which contributes the maximum number of 80 seats to the Lok Sabha and has a bearing on the governance at the Centre.
Hemmed in as Mr Yadav is on various fronts like the blood curdling killings of children in Nirthari village in Noida adjoining the national capital and hooliganism in the university in Lucknow apart from the cottage industry of kidnappings of the children of rich and influential people for ransom, the overbearing view in the UPA is that imposition of Central rule in Uttar Pradesh at this juncture with assembly elections barely four months away may amount to political hara kiri.
Authoritative sources said it might be advisable to allow Mr Yadav to wallow in the stew cooked by none other than himself and face the heat of an angry electorate.
The lack of affirmative action by the state government and allowing a potentially delicate law and order to drift rather than taking expeditious action as evidenced in Nithari village where children have gone missing over the last three years with the law and order machinery blissfully remaining in a slumber alleged due to political patronage has queered the pitch for the SP and its supremo in the run up to the assembly elections.
What has shocked the conscience of the country is the cavalier attitude of the leadership in UP to the killings in
Nithari village and the observations of the brother of the Chief Minister that these were ordinary incidents which occurred all the time. It was only under sustained pressure that Mr Yadav finally acceded to a CBI inquiry into the killings in Nithari village.
Considering the importance of the outcome of the assembly elections in UP, the strategy is to counter the SP by harping on its alleged misdeeds and abject failure to govern and provide security to the people.
It is apparent a lot will depend on the alliances that are formed for contesting the assembly elections in UP even though Mr Yadav has stressed he will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the Congress and the BJP fall by the wayside as the outcome will have a critical bearing on the government at the Centre.
With Nithari village at centrestage because of the brutal abduction and killing of children, Mr Yadav has not found it necessary so far to visit the place and provide a soothing balm to the distraught people. This might be so because the records show that any leader who has visited Noida in the run up to an assembly election in UP has come a cropper.
Amid mounting criticism of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in UP for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, Mr Rajeshwar had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month on December 6. The meeting took place after Mr Rajeshwar had called on President A P J Abdul Kalam and union Home minister Shivraj Patil. Mr Rajeshwar’s earlier meeting with the President and the Prime Minister took place against the backdrop of growing demand from political parties including the BJP and the UPCC to impose President’s rule in UP ahead of the assembly elections.
