In a bid to counter allegations that the Kalyan Government was replaced by that of Jagdambika Pal in unprecedented haste (a record eight hours) to help the Samajwadi Party in the Lok Sabha polls on February 22, Bhandari claims, no political leader had taken such an extreme step though many governments have been dismissed in the past.

``Not even when BJP Governments had been dismissed in 1992, not only in UP, but also in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, after the Babri Masjid demolition. Their commitment to Lord Rama appeared to be less than their desire to remain in power in UP,'' he claims in his book, As I Saw It, released by the former prime minister HD Deve Gowda today.

Bhandari was in fact taken aback when the then director-general of UPPolice Sriram Arun whispered in his ear during the swearing in of the Pal Cabinet that Vajpayee had launched an indefinite fast.

``The focus of attention would not be on what grounds, and why the Kalyan Singh Government was dismissed, but the fact that a prospective prime minister had gone on a strike to death. The sympathy would be for him,'' (during next day's polling) was what Bhandari thought immediately.

Bhandari's book is full of such political comments and personal observations on the turbulent politics of UP where he presided as Governor from July 19, 1996 to March 19, 1998.

Bhandari has also highlighted the culture of defections by citing three Loktantrik Congress ministers in the Kalyan Cabinet -- Naresh Agrawal, Vivek Singh and Virender Singh -- who changed loyalties several times between February 21 and February 24, 1998, sometimes even within minutes.

In an open show of solidarity with Kalyan Singh, both Vivek and Virender accompanied the then Chief Minister to meet him on February 21 at5 pm. Five minutes later both called on Bhandari to say that they were joining Pal's group despite the fact that Kalyan had offered to promote them to Cabinet rank. ``Their loyalty to Kalyan Singh had disappeared at the portico of Raj Bhavan itself,'' Bhandari writes.

Referring to Kalyan's demand to allow him to prove his majority on the floor of the House, Bhandari writes, ``Frankly, I had expected him to voluntarily submit his resignation. This was the moral stand he should have taken. Other Chief Ministers faced with a similar situation had done so. But in UP once someone is in power, he does not to leave the chair. The main goal was to remain in power and support would follow. No ethics, morals or principles were relevant''.

Bhandari claims the Kalyan Singh lobby in the state BJP was responsible for the assassination of Vajpayee's confidante, Brahma Dutt Dwivedi, who headed the Brahmin lobby within the BJP. He also claims to have heard that at the end of her six-month tenure as chief minister,Mayawati put pressure on a CBI officer to implicate both Kalyan and Sakshi Maharaj, BJP MP from Farrukhabad, in the Dwivedi murder case. Bhandari said he checked the veracity of such stories from the then CBI Director, R C Sharma.

Bhandari has reproduced almost all reports sent by him to the President (marked secret) whenever there was a political crisis in UP. But isn't that a breach of the oath of secrecy?

``No, since these documents have already been summoned by the Court and Parliament,'' claims Bhandari. `` Have you seen Jagmohan's book? He has reproduced even secret IB reports? If that is not breach of secrecy, how can be mine?''

A few nuggets from Bhandari's opus