March 22, 2008 Advani Did Meet
Mulayam to Trip Sonia By Faraz
Ahmad
New Delhi
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and Samajwadi Party
leader Mulayam Singh Yadav did meet secretly in 1999 to prevent
Congress president Sonia Gandhi from becoming prime minister,
sources close to Yadav and former defence minister George Fernandes
have confirmed.
Advani caused a sensation by revealing in his book, "My Country, My
Life", released here Wednesday, that he and Mulayam Singh Yadav -
otherwise supposedly sworn political foes - met soon after the Atal
Bihari Vajpayee government lost parliamentary majority and Gandhi
tried to cobble a new coalition.
Advani disclosed that Fernandes organised his (Advani's) meeting
with Yadav at the Sujan Singh Park residence of Samata Party chief
Jaya Jaitley, a confidante of Fernandes, on the night of April
20-21, 1999. The BJP veteran said Jaitley drove him in her car to
the venue.
One of those who knew about the meeting told IANS: "Every bit of
Advani's description of the meeting with Mulayam Singh Yadav is a
faithful account of the events" that unfolded soon after the
Vajpayee government collapsed.
According to another source, Samajwadi Party MP Mohan Singh did the
spadework for the meeting. But Mohan Singh, speaking to IANS, denied
he was any way linked to the Advani-Mulayam talks.
Mohan Singh, a long-time associate of Fernandes, told IANS: "I have
no idea about all this. I am not aware of any such meeting."
As the former defence minister, Yadav lived opposite Fernandes' 3,
Krishna Menon Marg bungalow.
The Advani-revealed drama took place after the Vajpayee-led National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) government lost parliamentary majority by
a single vote after the AIADMK joined forces with the Congress and
its allies.
Thereafter, all non-NDA parties got together to work out a consensus
to forge a new government.
With his aversion for the Congress known, Yadav called a meeting of
non-Congress and non-NDA leaders at his residence and suggested that
then West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu be prime minister. But
Basu and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) rejected the
idea.
Gandhi went in the meanwhile to President K.R. Narayanan and staked
claim to forming a new government, assuming that all those groups
that had voted against the Vajpayee government would back her.
That was when Yadav gave Narayanan a letter saying his party would
not support a government led by Gandhi. Eventually, fresh elections
took place and the Vajpayee-led NDA returned to power with more
seats.
The sources that spoke to IANS said that before Fernandes telephoned
Advani to arrange a meeting with Yadav, Fernandes himself had two or
three meetings with Yadav.
One source told IANS: "I don't know where they met. But I know they
met."
Despite repeated attempts, IANS could not reach Fernandes or
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh.
However, a Fernandes aide said that Advani's disclosures, amid
speculation that the Congress and the Samajwadi Party may be
preparing to bury their long-time rivalry, would not have any impact
on political developments.
The source said: "Surely Sonia Gandhi knew about the meeting all
along. That was one of the reasons for the bitterness between Sonia
and Mulayam. If they are coming close today, it is because of their
political compulsions."
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