BSP, Cong love-hate relationship

“Kuchh log jo mukhya mantri bane rahna chahte hain, wo roren atka rahe hain (some people who want to remain ensconced as the Chief Minister are putting obstacles),” Kanshi Ram said, in an apparent reference to the senior Congress leader.

Incidentally, BSP is insisting on projecting former Union Minister and BSP general secretary Arvind Netam, a veteran tribal leader, as the future Chief Minister.

According to him, the BSP-Congress alliance in the State would drastically affect the BJP’s prospects. “We can restrict their strength in the State to a single digit,” he said.

According to him, both the BJP and the entrenched Congress leadership in MP were in favour of retaining an upper caste CM in the State. He revealed that Netam would contest the ensuing polls from two constituencies — one reserved and the other general.

Under the tie-up formalised in Punjab, the BSP will contest four seats — Hoshiarpur, Phillaur, Ferozepur and Ropar. The Congress will contest the remaining nine constituencies.

Kanshi Ram said he would be contesting from Hoshiarpur, a seat which he won last time on the BSP-SAD alliance ticket.

He also renominated Harbhajan Lakha and Mohan Singh Fallianwala for Phillaur (reserved) and Ferozepur respectively, while announcing the name of Maan Singh Maherh for the Ropar seat.

The Congress, on its part, has renominated Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder and RL Bhatia for the Gurdaspur and Amritsar constituencies. Names of the candidates for the other seats would be announced later.

He also announced the candidature of Akhand Pratap Singh Yadav, who resigned last year from the Digvijay Cabinet, from Khajuraho, which has been sending the fiery BJP leader Uma Bharati for the last three terms.