US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Kanshi, Tohra oppose Sonia as PM

For differing reasons, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Kanshi Ram and All India Shiromani Akali Dal president Gurcharan Singh Tohra today opposed Sonia Gandhi as a prospective prime minister.

Talking to reporters, Kanshi Ram said he was opposed to Sonia Gandhi becoming prime minister because ''I want a weak and unstable government at the Centre.''

In a separate interface with the press, Tohra said he was against Sonia Gandhi becoming prime minister because ''she is the daughter-in-law of a person who was responsible for Operation Bluestar in June1984. Besides, her husband Rajiv Gandhi had defended the 1984 riots," he added.

However, Sonia Gandhi's Italian origin did not bother the two who have entered into an electoral alliance in Punjab. The BSP leader was of the view that Home Minister L K Advani was ''more'' dangerous than Sonia Gandhi, because the former was born in Karachi, now in Pakistan. He said when a Haryana-born person could become prime minister of Mauritius why can't Sonia Gandhi become prime minister of India?

Tohra, who broke away from ruling Akali Dal, did not agree with the claim of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee versus Sonia Gandhi was the main issue in the Lok Sabha poll. ''Badal has at last accepted that Sonia Gandhi has emerged as a formidable challenger to Vajpayee,'' he quipped.

Kanshi Ram said his election strategy was to ensure that neither the BJP nor the Congress won more than 150 seats each. ''It is also my endeavour to see that pre-poll allies of the BJP did not secure more than 50 seats. Its (BJP) likely post-poll allies such as the Nationalist Congress Party and Samajwadi Party, did not get more than 30 seats.''

''My overall objective is to keep the BJP and its pre-poll and post-poll allies fifty short of majority in the Lok Sabha,'' he added.

Kanshi Ram said it was because of his effort to keep both the BJP and Congress away from power that the BSP had not entered into an alliance with any major party. He, however, conceded that the BSP was supporting former Haryana chief minister Bansi Lal's son and a Congress candidate in one seat each without a formal alliance in furtherance of its election strategy.

''It is also a part of our strategy to enter into electoral arrangements with parties which are weaker than the BSP as to deny both the BJP and Congress any accrual of strength at the time of government formation,'' he said.

While stating that the BSP had entered into electoral alliances with Akali factions led by Tohra, Kuldip Singh Wadala and Jasvir Singh Rode, Kanshi Ram said, ''We have not aligned with Simranjeet Singh Mann because of his Khalistan agenda which he announced at Anantpur Sahib.''

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report