... What one say about the BJP, once held up as an example of discipline, cohesion and probity, which has not only discredited itself thoroughly but is also persisting in its apparent determination to be the architect of its own undoing?

The sudden eruption of the crisis between the U.F. and its main prop, Congress (I), had given the saffron party a golden opportunity to live down, at least partially, the ignominy and obloquy that have been its deserved fate because of the shameful collapse of its Ministry in Gujarat, the naked display of Congress-style factionalism in its rank almost everywhere and, above all, its despicable performance in UP ..

From the word go, diverse BJP leaders started declaring that they would "divide" the Congress(I) and form a government in Delhi, as ... in Lucknow. The nadir was reached when a good man like Atal Behari Vajpayee declared ... that "some Congress friends" had been "in touch" with his party; that the "signals were encouraging; and that if "legal defections" (oh, what a lovely phrase!) could take place in requisite numbers, the "new-comers" would be welcomed by the BJP with open arms. In a later statement by L.K. Advani, after the party had abandoned its ambition to form a government because the Congress MPs anxious to cross over to the Hindutva party were only 40 and thus seven short of the mandatory number required by the anti-defection law, the phrase "legal split" was used. But, in essence, the two top leaders of the BJP were saying politely what Mr. Kalyan Singh had been bellowing in Lucknow ... obscenely. ..

Advani's claim of the number of potential defectors having risen to 40 may be exaggerated ... or even false. Just as the Congress(I)'s claim that the BJP was offering both cash and ministerial office to Congress members of the Lok Sabha willing to rat on their party may be baseless or vastly magnified. But the country believes that Congressmen are capable of the worst betrayal ... A large number of prominent Congressmen themselves asserted that about 40 of their colleagues were indeed ready to jump on the BJP bandwagon. ...                                                                                                                              (Source: The Hindu, 7 December, 1997)