Lucknow: Hardening their stand against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, who has refused to revoke POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) charges against jailed up Legislator Raja Bhaiya and his father Uday Pratap, many of the party MLAs have demanded withdrawal of support to the government if she does not drop the charges against the said Legislators.

The party should also be prepared to go to a snap poll if the Chief Minister continued to adopt an unrelenting attitude on this matter, the MLAs are reported to have told the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Legislature party leader Lalji Tandon at a meeting on February 1 night, party sources said on February 2.

Mayawati virtually threw a challenge to the state BJP by terming all those opposed to invocation of POTA on Raja Bhaiya and his father as "manuvadis".

Invocation of POTA on the father-son duo, the MLAs said, could "adversely affect" the party's Thakur vote bank.

Senior party leaders who were in support of the government action were taken by surprise at the angry outburst of the MLAs, sources said.

The MLAs alleged before Tandon that the district officials had conspired to make a case against the independent MLA and his father and criticised the "unrelenting" attitude of Mayawati in this matter, saying she had made it a "prestige issue".

PTI