BSP gears up for elections in anticipation

LUCKNOW OCT 5: We want imposition of President's rule and elections soon after because after creation of Uttarakhand, the Gupta governme...

LUCKNOW OCT 5: “We want imposition of President’s rule and elections soon after because after creation of Uttarakhand, the Gupta government will be on a majority of only one or two legislators and could fall anytime,” said Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and MP Mayawati, in conversation with newspersons at her residence on Thursday.

The firebrand leader has already launched a massive exercise to mobilise its cadre and has held division-level meetings of party workers and directed them to get ready for elections. Desperation in the BSP camp for an early election is being taken as a warning signal for the BJP because the allies to the Gupta government, especially the Loktantrik Congress party had already aired grievances against the functioning of the government and had threatened to withdraw support on many occasions in the recent past on one pretext or the other.

Mayawati said she has held meetings with the party workers and exhorted them to get ready for any eventuality. “After creation of the new state on November 1, the Gupta government will have a wafer-thin majority. The BSP won’t, on its own, make any attempt to topple the government. It will collapse on its own because of confusion among allies and also the BJP cadre,” she maintained.

The BSP MP also flayed the Vajpayee government for the hike in prices of petrol, kerosene and LPG and claimed that the decision would cost the government dearly. “The price hike has once against exposed the anti-poor and pro-industrialist approach of the BJP government. The BSP will oppose the decision tooth and nail and raise the voice of the poor people in Parliament.”

She said the results of the Municipal Corporation in Gujarat have already proved that the BJP government has almost been rejected by the electorate and the same trend would continue because the Vajpayee government has no concern for the poor. She said if the hike in petro prices was unavoidable, the government should have increased the salaries of its employees to counter it. “Hike in petroleum and kerosene prices always has a cascading effect, leading to increase in prices of essential commodities,” she pointed out.