LUCKNOW, November 21: Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi today granted five days' time to rebel Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs for filing a reply to Mayawati's petitions seeking their disqualification.

All the 12 rebels -- accompanied by three counsels -- appeared in person before the Speaker today to urge that as they had got copies of the notice seeking their reply only yesterday, they should be given more time to do so.

The BSP counsel's objection to the grant of more time and appeal that the Speaker must ensure that the rebels didn't bring about more defections were rejected. ``There is no supporting evidence to it and hence (the plea) is being rejected,'' Tripathi said.

The counsel for the rebels, Amjani Kumar, urged the Speaker to provide him copies of all the letters and petitions sent to him (the Speaker) by Mayawati, a copy of the BSP's constitution and names of the party's office-bearers. He also requested a copy of the video-tape of assembly proceedings on October 21, the day voting took place on Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's confidence motion.Agreeing to provide the required material by tomorrow, Tripathi instructed both the parties to file their replies by November 25 so that the hearing could take place the next day.

Mayawati's counsel, Umesh Chandra, sought to make some amendments in her petition against the 13th rebel, Hari Krishna Srivastava, whose petition is being dealt with separately as he had not voted for the Kalyan Government on October 21.

Srivastava had earlier accused Mayawati of filing a false affidavit, in which she claimed that she had served him a copy of the party's whip asking MLAs to vote against Kalyan. He produced documentary evidence to show that he was out of station on October 20, when Mayawati claims to have issued the whip.

Despite frantic efforts, the rebel BSP legislators are yet to produce 11 more ``rebel'' MLAs that would take their number to 23 and save them from disqualification under the Anti-Defection Law. Rebel leaders, all of whom are now ministers, have claimed off and on that they would come out with the required number at an ``opportune time'', but have failed so far.

Today, the counsels for the rebel legislators began by seeking a number of documents, including the Governor's message to the Speaker stating that the vote of confidence be undertaken under Section 175(2) of the Constitution and reports of the two observers in the House during the voting.

Meanwhile, Narendra Singh, one of the rebel BSP MLAs, claimed again today that they had the required numbers.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.