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Resignation Kalyan's 'personal' decision: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party high command has said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's decision to step down from his post is "personal".

Party spokesman J P Mathur told a television channel that the high command has invited senior leaders from the state to Delhi tomorrow to decide on his successor. The invitees include state minister Kalraj Misra and UP BJP president Rajnath Singh. Kalyan Singh had indicated yesterday that he was about to step down from office.

He met Governor Suraj Bhan at Raj Bhavan today. What transpired at the meeting is not known, but speculation is rife that he may have put in his papers. When confronted, the chief minister refused to go further on his statements at different places that he was in the process of shifting his luggage and that he was being punished for a crime he never committed.

"No comment," he told reporters tersely.

Kalyan Singh had said he had gone to greet Suraj Bhan on Diwali, but the statement came just a night after the chief minister reportedly told some party workers about his plan to move out of his official bungalow.

"Hearty Diwali greetings," added the chief minister, who was leaving for his hometown in Aligarh on Sunday evening despite having announced plans to celebrate the festival at his Mall Avenue home in Lucknow.

Officials, party leaders, workers and reporters flocked to meet Public Works Department Minister Kalraj Misra, who occupies the second rank in the Kalyan Singh cabinet, since early this morning.

Misra met Kalyan Singh today at the chief minister's home at the latter's behest. He, however, remained non-committal about taking over the mantle.

"I have no knowledge about any decision taken by the high command regarding a change in leadership [in the state]," he said. "Right now, Kalyan Singhji is very much our chief minister and I am his cabinet colleague," he said.

Misra termed as 'hypothetical' a question whether the ruling alliance would remained unchanged if there was a change in the leadership in the state. "Who says there is a threat to the alliance?" he asked.

A major point of discussion at Misra's meeting with the chief minister was reportedly over whether an urgent meeting of the BJP Legislature Party ought to be convened.

State BJP general secretary Veerzen Saroha has endorsed the move to hold such a meeting. Maintaining that it would help every legislator to express his viewpoint on the matter of leadership, he said: "The chief minister should consider such a demand [to hold a legislature party meeting]."

He also demanded a meeting of all the BJP's allies to discuss the present political scenario in the state.

UNI

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