NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW, 8 November — Accused of “running away from elections,” Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Rajnath Singh has finally chosen to face the challenge.
Yesterday, he revealed his plan to hold the assembly elections in the state by February. Rajnath said, “The schedule for the assembly elections will be such that the next government is formed by February 2002.”
Of late, opposition parties had been exerting pressure on the state government to dissolve the assembly and hold fresh elections at the earliest possible. The political exercise initiated by Samajwadi Party (SP) on Sept. 11 had led to 152 members’ resignation from 403-member house.
Earlier the UP chief minister, whose government’s term expires on March 27, had refused to be waived by the opposition pressure. The Samajwadi Party says it is confident of winning upcoming elections in UP and warned the result would oust Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee government at the center.
In an interview published yesterday, party leader Amar Singh said the Samajwadi Party would defeat Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which now rules the state. Once that happens, “the Vajpayee government will fall. All fence sitters and weathercocks will abandon the sinking ship,” Amar told the Times of India.
Amar’s reasoning is that Vajpayee’s coalition partners would then sense that the BJP was no more the voters’ favorite in UP, a politically vital state that also elects the maximum number of 81 MPs to the Lok Sabha (lower house).
Amar, an MP belonging to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, alleged that the BJP-led government in UP had become “communal” by favoring a Hindu right-wing group that is pressing to build a controversial temple. His reference is to the campaign by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a BJP affiliate that wants to build the temple at Ayodhya at a site where Hindu fanatics demolished a 16th-century mosque in 1992.
Amar also came down heavily on New Delhi’s ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), saying its “fight against communalism is selective”.
Calling for a similar ban on the VHP, he said: “The ban on SIMI, imposed in a haste, is aimed at polarizing the electorate.” Additionally, Amar alleged that BJP state government had turned corrupt, as was evident in the number of ministers who, he claimed, were “criminals”.
“The government in UP is full of Mafia dons. Many current ministers were (earlier) absconders,” he said. On the other hand, Amar said his party, which has twice in the past ruled UP, would romp home on a mix of campaign issues concerning farmers, jobless youths and religious minorities.
