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UP Elections: BJP ties up with JD(U), Apna Dal - Cong may go it alone

	March 19, 2007

While the BJP has almost finalised an alliance with the Janata Dal (United) and Apna Dal for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the Congress attempts to hammer out a seat-sharing arrangement with V.P. Singh’s Jan Morcha and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal have not made much headway.



With the first phase of Assembly elections less than a month away, the BJP announced a pre-poll alliance with the JDU and Apna Dal on March 11.



In a move aimed at rallying the non-Yadav OBCs behind it, the party said that it would face the coming elections jointly with the Apna Dal, a Kurmi dominated outfit with pockets of influence in eastern UP and the Janata Dal United.



Even though seat-sharing talks with the two parties had been going on for some time, they gathered momentum after it became known that Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and the CPI too had expressed their keenness about forging a pre-poll pact with the Apna Dal.



It is learnt that the alliance will be led by senior BJP leader Kalyan Singh who was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992.



BJP president Rajnath Singh is said to have swung the seat-sharing deal with these two outfits which had initially wanted to go on their own. The BJP had been quietly working on the deal for the last two months, convinced that the Apna Dal will give them an additional 7-8 per cent of the vote share.



“We will contest the polls as an effective alliance against the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party,” leaders of these parties said at a press conference at the home of JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav.



Upbeat on the party prospects, BJP leaders who had a meeting in New Delhi on March 16, said all partymen have been asked to close ranks and project an image of unity. Led by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh and other leaders, they claimed that the BJP would not only become king-maker, but would stake claim to power in Uttar Pradesh. They scotched talk of any post-poll alliance with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party saying that only the BJP could rescue the state from what they called the mess of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s rule.



The BJP has divided Uttar Pradesh into six zones for conducting its election campaign. Charge of each of the six zones has been given to a senior central leader of the party and an RSS pracharak.



The BJP’s attempt to play a Gandhi vs. Gandhi card in the coming UP elections, however, received a setback with national executive member Varun Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi’s son and Indira Gandhi’s grand son, refusing the party’s offer to contest for the Lok Sabha in the byelections to be held from Mirzapur and Bilhaur.



Another cause of worry for the BJP is the unhappiness of Gorakhpur BJP MP Adityanath with his supporters not being given the party tickets in the Assembly elections. Adityanath is reported to have said that his Hindu Yuva Vahini may field candidates against the BJP, if his demands are not met.





Fourth Front flounders



Meanwhile, the Congress attempt to forge an alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Jan Morcha is not making much headway reportedly because of excessive demands of the two formations in the allocation of seats. The Jan Morcha wants to be allocated 190 seats and the RLD 125. A senior Congress leader said if the demands are met, the Congress would be left with very few seats. The Jan Morcha has already announced its first list of 193 candidates for the coming Assembly elections.



Observers say that the failure to firm up the fourth alternative would result in a split in the anti-Mulayam votes that could favour the BJP or the BSP.





Rahul Gandhi plunges into election campaign



Congress MP from Amethi and party president Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul Gandhi has embarked on a three-day whirlwind tour of Uttar Pradesh in the western districts, the stronghold of RLD chief Ajit Singh. He has launched his mass contact programme in Ghaziabad bordering the national capital. The Congress is setting the hope for its revival in the state on Rahul Gandhi’s campaign, but how far he will succeed remains to be seen.



Rahul Gandhi also appears to be playing a role in candidate selection for the party. Source said Rahul Gandhi’s focus is on the youth and women. Candidates who fared poorly in the last election are unlikely to get tickets.





Mayawati woos the upper castes



The Bahujan Samaj Party became the first party in Uttar Pradesh to release the names of its candidates for all 403 Assembly seats on March 13. A striking feature of the list is the preponderance of upper castes. The party has fielded 86 Brahmins and 38 Rajput candidates. The upper caste share has been increased at the cost of Muslims and backward castes though the party has included 61 Muslims and 110 backward class candidates in its list.



In charting out her strategy, the BSP leader has reposed more faith in the upper castes, primarily the Brahmins who have been assiduously wooed by her over the last couple of years through a series of Brahmin conventions. The trend of breaking away from the conventional BSP mould of “Bahujan Samaj” or “Dalit resurgence” by taking the Muslims along - the political philosophy originally propounded by Mayawati’s mentor Kanshi Ram - was initiated in the 2002 elections when 92 upper caste candidates were given tickets.



Mayawati who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, said that she would not be contesting the Assembly elections as she wants to keep herself free to campaign all over the state. But she said that she will be a claimant for the Chief Minister’s seat if her party wins the election. Mayawati said, “we will form a government on our own.” She said one of the successful MLAs would resign after the election, paving the way for the byelection which she would contest.





EC ‘captures’ power : Top officials replaced



In the run up to the Assembly elections, the Election Commission has issued orders for shifting of top civil and police officials. These include the state Chief Secretary and Director General of Police. N.C. Vajpayee has been replaced by Shambhu Nath as Chief Secretary. DGP Bua Singh has been replaced by G.L. Sharma.



Immediately after taking office, the new Chief Secretary said he will review arrangements for the Assembly polls. he said the Home Secretary and the Police Chief have been asked to ensure free and fair elections and strict implementation of the Model Code of Conduct.



Upset by the EC’s order, outgoing DGP Bua Singh decided to opt for voluntary retirement. He said that he felt hurt and humiliated by the Election Commission’s move.





Supreme Court judge withdraws from Mulayam assets case



In an unprecedented situation, a Supreme Court judge, Justice A.R. Lakshmanan almost broke down in open court and announced his decision to opt out of hearing a review petition in the disproportionate assets case against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members. Tears rolling down his eyes, Justice Lakshmanan refused to hear the petition disclosing to a shocked court that he had received an anonymous letter leveling allegations against him. He said that in his over 17 years of judicial career, he had never gone through such a thing.



Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan has agreed now to assign the matter to another bench and posted it for hearing on March 23. Justice Lakshmanan retires on March 22.



The Samajwadi Party said it had nothing to do with the anonymous letter.



Earlier in the week, the Supreme Court on March 13 refused to stay the order directing a CBI inquiry against Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. It said the matter can be brought up in court only through a review petition, and not through an interim application