ACCESS DENIED: While supporters of MLAs who were denied tickets protest against the decision in Lucknow, an unrattled Rajnath (above extreme right) welcomes BSP MLAs into the party (below)

Party hopping on the eve of elections is an acknowledged pastime of political opportunists and congenital defectors. Political parties, irrespective of their size and reach, view such developments with alarm as it affects their rank and file. So when half-a-dozen ministers of the Rajnath Singh Cabinet put in their papers just before the BJP-led ruling alliance in the state distributed tickets for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections last week, the BJP should have been in a tizzy. Far from it. When it released the initial list of 309 candidates-the party will contest 325 seats leaving the remaining 78 in the 403-member Assembly for its allies-it was clear that the party was least rattled by the last-minute defections. Instead, in a seemingly bold gamble initiated by Rajnath to eject professional defectors and perennial blackmailers, the party denied tickets to 41 of the 152 sitting MLAs, including three ministers-over 25 per cent of the incumbents. In the past, the chief minister's predecessors have tried-and failed-in their attempts to purge the party of under-performers and mischiefmongers. Is Rajnath going to succeed where the others had failed?

The initial reactions were mixed. At the party headquarters on Delhi's Ashoka Road and at the state's main office in Lucknow, leaders were emphatic in their belief that it was good riddance to bad rubbish. They expressed confidence that with the excess baggage cast off, the BJP and its allies would come up trumps. But supporters of the MLAs who were denied tickets took out demonstrations and hurled abuses at Rajnath and the party's central leadership. "These are minor irritants. Having lost out on tickets, they will soon lose whatever little support they have," says a senior leader dismissively. The party believes that elections are as much about clearing the deadwood as it is about forging new friendships. So instead of mulling over the defections and the protests, the BJP has gone on an overdrive to attract allies-and on the face of it with considerable success.

The wide circle of friends that the BJP now boasts of includes, among others, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Loktantrik Congress Party (LCP), the Jantantrik Bahujan Samaj Party (JBSP), the Kisan Majdoor Bahujan Samaj Party (KMBSP), the Samata Party, the Janata Dal(U), the Lok Janshakti and the Shakti Dal. But the BJP leadership doesn't appear to be satisfied yet. It is still on the prowl to grab disgruntled members of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress. In fact, it has already managed a tie-up with two sacked BSP leaders and five SP MPs so far.

With the BJP's brotherhood bandwagon ostensibly gaining momentum, opposition parties have started undertaking a damage control exercise. Thanks to the active role played by JD(U) supremo Sharad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav's sp, for instance, has been stung by a spate of switchovers. The Samajwadi chief's monopoly on his community has been broken. Of the seven Yadav MPs in the SP, Sharad Yadav has succeeded in weaning away three-Rama Kant Yadav, Bhai Chand Yadav and Balram Singh Yadav. Besides, he has also succeeded in getting two others-Sakshi Maharaj and Sarvaraj Singh-to pledge support to the ruling alliance. A senior SP functionary said that those leaving the party were "either criminals or discredited persons" and they owed the advancements in their political career only to the generosity of the SP president. Such claims notwithstanding, the fact remains that the party leadership is yet to take decisive action against the defectors.

For one who was drafted into office just a year ago to shore up the sagging morale of the BJP, Rajnath has travelled a long way. Under the lacklustre leadership of Ram Prakash Gupta, the party had regressed to its nadir, buffeted as it was between allies with outrageous demands and partymen with oversized egos. Among the 41 MLAs who were denied renominations, there are those who are known to have cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections from the state and during the polls to the Vidhan Parishad. That Rajnath was ready to tame these elements both inside the party and among its allies is evident in the way he has dealt with the allocation of seats. Regular blackmailers like the LCP, Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti and the KMBSP had as usual demanded seats far in excess of their winning potential. But as things stand now, all its allies will have to be content with a total of 78 seats. Of this, the lion's share is expected to go to Ajit Singh's RLD. It is likely to get 35 seats, far short of its demand of 65. Paswan had hoped to put up at least 50 candidates, but he will have to satisfy his party members with just a tenth of that number. Likewise for Sharad Yadav's JD-(U).

Rajnath and the central leadership may believe they were being conservative while doling out seats to the allies, but the party still faces the prospect of rebellion. In fact, party cadres are openly voicing their displeasure in the constituencies allotted to Ajit Singh. Just a few months ago, he was a formidable opponent of the BJP in western Uttar Pradesh. The BJP wooed him in the hope of garnering the Jat and OBC votes. Though Ajit Singh played hard to get, saying he would enter into a pact only if the Centre agreed to carve out a separate state of Harit Pradesh comprising districts in western Uttar Pradesh, he finally buckled in. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's offer of Union agriculture minister was too good to resist. Now with a sizeable chunk of the seats in western Uttar Pradesh allotted to the RLD, the BJP is doubtful if its cadres will be as eager to canvass support for the newly found ally's candidates.

For the moment, however, the party leadership appears convinced that extraordinary situations demand extraordinary measures-like ejecting sitting MLAs. The spate of defections undoubtedly caused initial embarrassment to the state Government as did the earlier exits of ministers like Amarnath Tripathi, who was dismissed for his criminal links, and Mandleshwar Singh, who had to resign after the police raided his transport company for alleged irregularities. But even the entry of new allies or foe-turned-friends is not helping much. The support the BJP is now getting from the likes of, for instance, Sakshi Maharaj is being viewed with scepticism. After all, Maharaj walked out of the party into Mulayam Singh's embrace after showering choicest epithets on the prime minister himself. That was just two years ago-too short a time span to even try forgetting.

-with Sharad Gupta