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BJP uses 'birds' and 'bushes' to hold on to partners

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's crisis management team has latched on to an age-old saying to dissuade coalition partners from withdrawing support:

"A bird in hand," political fire-fighters are going around telling their numerous partners, "is worth several in the bush!"

The idea, a Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president confessed to Rediff On The NeT, is to convey that everyone is having the best possible deal under the present government. The Congress and the third force parties, the saffron party wants to convince them, would have own scheme of things.

They would not reward those who join them; they would only look to their own, he said.

Other sources revealed that BJP MP Vijay Kumar Goel would, during his scheduled dinner for All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha, try to persuade her to stick with Vajpayee.

"He will be playing on her apprehension about the Congress from which her party never has had a fair deal," they said.

Similarly, other ruling coalition MPs, particularly some from the Samata Party and the Biju Janata Dal, will be adequately wooed for loyalty.

Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy, who has been trying to get Jayalalitha to ditch Vajpayee, meanwhile, claimed that he commenced talks with at least 12 MPs of the coalition.

The BJP, for its part, is distinctly nervous about the possibility of a crisis. Senior leader Krishnan Lal Sharma, who briefed reporters in New Delhi, wanted the Congress to spell out its stand on extending support to the Rashtriya Janata Dal government in Bihar. This indicated that the party was trying to find what the Congress game-plan is, especially in the light of Dr Swamy's well-published move towards Jayalalitha.

"No challenge to the well-being of the Vajpayee government can be taken lightly," a BJP Rajya Sabha member confessed.

Meanwhile, Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh, commenting on Swamy's tea-party for Jayalalitha, said: "Circumstances (for pulling down the Vajpayee government) would be created on their own."

In such circumstances, the prime minister may reconsider expanding the Cabinet to accommodate dissident MPs in the government, sources hazarded.

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