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Constitutional crisis averted in UP, Assembly to meet on Jan. 18 |
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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has stepped back from likely confrontation with Governor T.V. Rajeshwar by accepting that the State Assembly had been prorogued and instead agreeing for convening of the House for a special session. Earlier, the Samajwadi Party had been pushing for a special session of the Assembly on Jan. 15 despite the Governor acting upon the previous recommendation of the state cabinet to prorogue the House. The change in the Mulayam Singh’s Government stance appears to have come on the advice of the Left leaders that going ahead with the special session on Jan. 15 would trigger a show-down and constitutional crisis that might lead to the dismissal of the sate government and imposition of President’s Rule.
The state legislature will now have a special session with the Governor addressing a joint sitting of both Houses on Jan. 18.
The latest series of developments were triggered by Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh pulling out his party’s Ministers from the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government and later withdrawing support to the ruling coalition. However, there is no danger to the Government as it appears to have adequate support in the Assembly even without the Rashtriya Lok Dal members.
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet met for the fifth time in three days on Jan. 12 when the decision to convene a new session of the Assembly was taken. The Chief Minister had an hour-long meeting with the Governor later to sort out the matter.
Mulayam Singh Yadav is apparently keen to secure a vote of confidence in the Assembly to check any move to impose President’s Rule in the state.
Observers say that the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre is unlikely to dismiss the Mulayam Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh. The UPA is of the view that it would be better to allow Mulayam to face the voters’ ire for misgovernance during the Assembly elections to be held by May this year.
In the meantime, there is no clarity on how various combines will emerge in the state for the coming elections. Ajit Singh’s RLD is keeping its options open and nobody is sure of the party’s future moves.
Muslim board unhappy with pace of Babri Masjid case
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has expressed unhappiness over what it called the failure of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government to speed up the Babri Masjid trial by clubbing two separate cases being heard in two different courts at Rae Bareli and Lucknow. At its biannual meeting in Chennai, the board said that even 14 years after the Babri Masjid was demolished, the culprits are yet to be brought to book. The Board said that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister had not kept his word on issuing a fresh notification giving jurisdiction on criminal cases relating to the demolition to a court at Lucknow. The list of accused in the criminal cases includes BJP leaders such as L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.
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