NEW DELHI, July 5: A meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and AIADMK president J Jayalalitha is likely to take place shortly to sort out differences between the two parties that had put a question mark on the continuance of the BJP-led government.The possibility of a meeting between Vajpayee and Jayalalitha was the outcome of discussions two ministers of the BJP-led coalition had with the AIADMK chief in Chennai yesterday.
Defence Minister George Fernandes and Coal Minister Dilip Ray, who met Jayalalitha, called on Vajpayee and were understood to have conveyed to him that there was no threat to the government from AIADMK ``at least for some time.''
Fernandes, who met Vajpayee soon after arriving from Chennai last night, said he had a ``good message'' from Jayalalitha after a luncheon meeting with her yesterday.
Ray apprised Vajpayee this evening of the discussions with her.
The two ministers are understood to have told Vajpayee that Jaya was cut up with the BJP leadership for theoutright rejection of her demand for the dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu and that they were taking the party's support to the coalition government for granted.
She was said to be cut up with the ``big brotherly attitude'' of the BJP and wanted that AIADMK should be taken into confidence on all major decisions of the government.
She was reportedly also upset that her ministers at the Centre were being hampered in their functioning and were not being allowed to have even personal secretaries and officials of their choice for efficient functioning.
She also wanted early replacement for the party nominees R Muthiah and R K Kumar who had to resign from the coalition ministry. She is said to have conveyed that her party would not stand in the way the passage of railway and general budget and she would not be responsible for destabilisation of the government.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.