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When a Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister, armed with obsequy and a bouquet, entered the obscure Park Lane residence of the new Chief Minister of the State Ram Prakash Gupta, he saw the man anointed by the Bharatiya Janata Party to head India's politically most significant state and guffawed, ``Ye kis murde ko laye ho (which corpse have you resurrected).''
Gupta was a surprise choice, obviously. Most visitors to his residence after the announcement by the party leadership, mistook his younger brother for the new CM; after all he was more active and in charge than the ``crumbling relic'' who seemed utterly lost in the melee.
That's also more or less the state of the BJP in UP; lost.
Gupta's initial days in office have been interesting. When asked by the State Director General of Police how many vehicles he would require for his family, he simply replied that since he had a large family, a bus would suffice.
And, at the swearing in ceremony, history of sorts in Indian politics was created. Gupta had a list of six BJP ministers to be sworn in along with the mandatory quota for the allies. Presuming that a certain Mahendra Ari Daman Singh represented the Loktantrik Congress, the ticked his name. Only after the ceremony, did aghast BJP leaders point out to the CM that Singh belonged to his own party.
 That just about underscores Gupta's familiarity with present-day UP politics; far removed from his tenure in the mid-1960s as Deputy Chief Minister under Charan Singh.
More than that, that hangover over the Jat leader's socialism remains with Gupta who is reported to be uncomfortable with liberalisation or decentralisation at Cabinet meetings, often bemusing the Chief Secretary.
And, if Gupta is not too sharp on fiscal discipline, he's also slips up when it comes to physical discipline. The CM's son, Rajiv Lochan, a doctor at the Balrampur hospital, has barred him from the greasy puri-kachori that Gupta loves. So, unkind sources say, the poor old man actually awakens nights to hunt for leftovers from dinner; while his son sleeps.
But if Gupta is lost, his predecessor Kalyan Singh is even more so. On the verge of expulsion from the party, except the Samajwadi Party's Mulayam Singh Yadav (who can only enter into secret understandings with him due to Kalyan's role in the Babri Masjid demolition and espousal of a Ram mandir at Ayodhya) and corporator Kusum Rai, there are hardly any takers for him.
In fact, the erstwhile chairman of the Kalyan Fan Club (it actually existed) Ram Kumar Shukla, may be veering over to Singh's bete noire, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. He has been heard telling friends, ``Guru Gobind dau khare/kake lage paye?''
 Kalyan's supporters amongst the BJP's MLAs and its allies do not want the Government to collapse, because their return to the Treasury benches now appears a remote prospect if Assembly polls are thus precipitated.
So he's left with staunch loyalist Kusum Rai, who even donned black, mourning Kalyan's ouster. In fact, vicious tongues in Lucknow wagged that when Rai returned from Mahoba (where Charan Shah committed ``sati''), and consoled Kalyan, that she too was a political sati.
This lose-lose scenario for the BJP continues. State unit chief Rajnath Singh has been moved to Delhi as a Union Minister and a successor has to be chosen. The BJP has to at least attempt to keep its backward votes that could desert the party with Kalyan. So another Thakur like Rajnath or a Brahmin like Kalraj Mishra, considered the masterminds behind the ouster of a backward CM, at the helm, will further accentuate the perception of utter Brahmanisation of the party. On the other hand, no Dalit can be appointed because they have nothing to do with the BJP. As for backwards, the only other leader of stature is Vinay Katiyar, the Ayodhya MP and Bajrang Dal loudmouth, who would do more damage than good.
That's one cleft stick. It was escape another that the BJP appointed Gupta, a non-entity from a neutral caste, the banias.
For now, the BJP leadership can only make forays toward damage control in the State and things will just keep on getting more interesting.
Rahul Shrivastava is with Star News' Lucknow Bureau
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