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UP council poll results boost BJP's morale

The Bharatiya Janata Party is in an upbeat mood after securing 25 out of the 39 legislative council seats in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad election.

Hailing the election results as an indicator of the people's mood, BJP vice-president K L Sharma said, "It is a trend-setter in UP and all over the country."

With such a morale booster from the all-important state which sends the maximum number of 85 members to Parliament, the BJP expects to improve its tally of 53 seats in the last election.

"This shows that we would achieve our target of 65 in UP," party's national executive member, Dr Jagdish Shettigar told Rediff On The NeT.

But the Samajwadi Party, which came second in the election, says it has been conclusively proved that there is no secular alternative to Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's party in the state

SP national general secretary Amar Singh told Rediff On The NeT, "The fact that, in spite of the large-scale rigging, we have got 11 seats and came second in 20 constituencies shows that only the SP is capable of facing the communal forces's onslaught in the state. In former BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi's constituency, Allahabad, we lost only by 49 votes."

The SP is obviously happy at the Bahujan Samaj Party drawing a nought after contesting all the seats and the Congress winning in just one. The BSP secured almost 20 per cent votes in the 1996 election.

Though the SP runs down Kanshi Ram's party -- saying it is no longer a big force in the state -- the BJP officials still feel that the BSP would get a few seats. The SP feels confident of getting at least 20 to 25 seats in the coming election.

It has also decided to put up candidates outside UP, particularly Maharashtra, by which it expects to raise its tally to 35 from 17 in the last election.

The biggest loss of face for Mulayam Singh is that his party has been routed in his citadel, the Meinpuri-Etawah belt. Amar Singh said, "Meinpuri has been coupled with Mathura, and whatever we got in Mathura was offset by the total rigging that took place in Meinpuri."

Amar Singh points out that the council poll brings out the BJP's hypocrisy of crying foul at criminalisation in politics and then fielding criminals.

"Newspapers have only reported the massive BJP win, but they have failed to see how the BJP managed this victory,'' he said. ''Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was reluctant to hold the election as scheduled on December 29 as he was apprehensive about the outcome. After allocating millions of rupees for the local bodies on the poll-eve, which comprise the electorate, he managed to get the elections postponed and bought time to rig the poll." In fact, the election was put off by the Election Commission due to the violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

"The BJP fielded underworld leader Brijesh Singh's brother Chulbul Singh in Banares and another mafia leader Ajit Singh in Lucknow. Brijesh carries a Rs 800,000 reward on his head, and he is operating from Singapore and Hong Kong," Amar Singh alleged.

Though the SP refuses to admit the results as an indicator of the general election outcome, the party feels it would do a world of good in brow-beating the other United Front parties into going in for seat adjustments on Mulayam Singh's terms.

EARLIER REPORTS:
BJP sweeps council poll
UP council polls put off due to sops

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