Dissidents plan meet

LUCKNOW: Even as BJP on Thursday launched a damage-control exercise, there was no let-up in dissidence activities on Thursday as rebels planned to hold a meeting in the state capital to chalk out their strategy.
BJP Legislature Party leader Rajnath Singh on Thursday appointed Lalji Tandon as the deputy leader in the Vidhan Sabha. Significantly, Rajnath made an attempt to give lollies to disgruntled party legislators, who are in race for the ministership, while appointing other office-bearers of the Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad.
But the BJPLP leader’s attempt may not yield desired results as the rebels are planning to hold a meeting in Lucknow in a day or two to mount pressure on the party leadership for their inclusion in the Cabinet.
“Members may have different grievances, but generally they have one common grievance that no criterion or parameter were set for selection of candidates for ministership,� pointed out Raja Bhinga Chandrakant Mani Singh claiming that their fight was not for a Cabinet berth but to bring in transparency in the selection procedure.
Raja Bhinga claimed the meeting was likely to request the party high command to fix criterion and introduce transparency in selection of ministers.
Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh has appointed Dr Laxmikant Vajpayee as the chief whip and Chandra Kishore the whip of the party in the Vidhan Sabha. Jata Shanker Singh and Rajesh Agarwal, who had staked their claim for ministerial berths, have been made secretary and the treasurer respectively.
Similarly, Dr Nepal Singh has been appointed as the BJP leader in the Vidhan Parishad and Rajesh Pandey as deputy leader, Bharat Tripathi as chief whip, Ramchandra Valmiki as whip, Ram Prasad Kamal as secretary and Raghavram Mishra as incharge.