Next stop for Morcha: Poll pact with BSP

But the BSP,which has announced to go it alone in Punjab,has already finalised 80 candidates for the polls. The state has 117 Assembly seats. “So far,the PPP or any of its alliance partners have not spoken to us. We have no objection to Barnala holding talks with our national president. We will abide by whatever is decided by behenji (Mayawati). But she has already given her nod to 80 candidates during the May 29 visit to Chandigarh,” BSP state presisdent Avtar Singh Karimpuri said.

The BSP’s decision to go to it alone in a state which has one of the highest schdeuled caste population ( 28.9 per cent) in the country,is being seen as a tacit understanding between the party and the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). But Karimpuri dismisses this as baseless.

“Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal only believes in discussions,that too in the newspapers,and not in conclusions. He had spoken to BSP about an alliance before the Lok Sabha polls in 2004. Badal had then told us that he will decide on it after a meeting with BJP’s Atal Behari Vajpayee. But he has never called us since in the last seven years,” Karimpuri said.

Claiming that the BSP is in a better position in Punjab as compared to 2007,he says the party unlike the SAD (Badal) is not regional but national. “Our party policy and strategy is to contest all state polls. We had contested the 2007 polls alone. We are prepared to fight the 2012 polls too on our own strength,” he added.

Left parties – CPI and CPM – which have been vociferous in their criticism of BSP,do not seem to be opposed to getting Mayawati on board in Punjab. “Sanjha Morcha is an alliance of secular,nationalist and like-minded parties. It has a common ideology which will be spelled out through the common minimum programme,” CPI secretary Joginder Dayal had said while announcing the Morcha.