Maya rivals gang up

NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, who resigned from the BJP-led NDA coalition last week, met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of a broad alliance in Uttar Pradesh to take on the BJP-BSP combine in the state. RLD sources added that Singh simultaneously forwarded the resignations of his five ministers in UP to the chief minister's secretariat in Lucknow, heralding the withdrawal of support by the RLD — which has 14 MLAs — to the Mayawati government.An RLD functionary said, "We want to get together with the Congress, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kalyan Singh and then draw up our strategy for the next round of elections in the state, whenever they are held." In fact, the Congress had objected to the "humiliation" meted out to Singh when he quit the Vajpayee cabinet and had warned other allies of such treatment if they continue with the NDA. However, sources added that Ajit Singh's suggestion to Sonia Gandhi that the Mayawati-led government be toppled did not find favour with the Congress. And though the latter is certainly keen on a broad alliance, it is a bit wary about Singh, given his "political unreliability". Singh's RLD represents the Jat votes, and though his area of influence is largely western Uttar Pradesh, there is a sizeable Jat population in Rajasthan, which goes to the polls in November. Senior Congress leader Natwar Singh, a Jat from Rajasthan, and former UP Congress chief Salman Khurshid were the Congress leaders who were present during Singh's meeting with Gandhi. The Ajit-Sonia meeting has also given a boost to the attempts under way to forge a new combine. However, Mayawati's departure on a four-nation tour is being cited as a measure of her confidence. This is because her government can survive even if the 14 RLD MLAs pull out of the BSP-BJP-led coalition. With Rajesh Ramachandran and Smita Gupta