UP to witness four-cornered contest in LS polls

The political equations remain much the same as in 1996 and 1998, with the four major parties vying with each other to woo voters.

All the constituents of the BJP-led coalition Government have announced continuation of their alliance on the election front. The BJP, however, is yet to take a decision on the number of seats to be distributed among its allies.

The allies — the Samata Party, the Janatantrik Bahujan Samaj Party (JBSP), the Loktantrik Congress, the Janata Dal (Rajaram) and a group of Independent members of the Legislative Assembly — have together demanded at least 25 LokSabha seats this time.

In 1998, the BJP had left eight seats for its allies — five for the JBSP, two for the Samata Party and one for Maneka Gandhi, who had contested as an Independent.

Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, however, has announced that this time, the party would not leave any of the 57 seats it had won in 1998 to its allies. The Samata Party’s decision to merge with a faction of the Janata Dal (JD) may also complicate matters for the ruling alliance as the JD group is bound to demand its share.

As regards the BJP’s choice of candidates, the party’s State unit president Rajnath Singh had declared after the party’s State election committee meeting here last week that its members in the dissolved Lok Sabha would be replaced only under “unavoidable circumstances”.

A draft list of the candidates was prepared at the meeting which is to be approved by the BJP central election committee scheduled to meet in New Delhi on August 2-3.

According to Singh, the BJP will give more representation to womenwhile selecting candidates.

One of the reasons cited by BJP sources for retaining the sitting members was that they were unable to complete even a quarter of their tenure as the 12th Lok Sabha was dissolved.

Some of the smaller groups like the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), led by former Union Minister Ajit Singh and the Communist parties may ally with any of the non-BJP groups, as in 1998. Singh’s group, which had contested eight seats last time in alliance with the Congress, is this time demanding half the 21-odd seats in western Uttar Pradesh and some seats in eastern and central UP as well.

Singh has already announced that he will contest again from his `home’ constituency Baghpat.

Both the Communist parties — the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), were part of the United Front led by the SP in the State in 1998. The SP had left only one seat, Varanasi, to the CPI (M) among its allies in the UF last time.

In the absence of the United Front this time, the SP hasannounced that it will contest all the 85 LS seats on its own. The party may, however, support former prime minister Chandra Shekhar of the Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) in Balia as it had done in 1998.

The BSP had also announced that it would contest all the seats like it did in 1996 and 1998. Party chief Kanshi Ram has made it clear that the BSP will not enter into any alliance with the Congress or any other party in the State.

According to BSP sources, the party has already prepared a list of candidates, in which equal representation has been given to the Scheduled Castes, minorities, Other Backward Classes and the Most Backward Classes.

Kanshi Ram, a Rajya Sabha member, has decided not to contest in the Lok Sabha election but party vice-president and former chief minister Mayawati is likely to contest from Akbarpur.

According to State SP president Ramsaran Das, his party has already decided almost half of its candidates and their names are being announced by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav at hiselection campaign meetings. Yadav has so far announced candidates for about a dozen seats, including Amethi, where the SP had lost in 1998. The candidates’ ability to win was a major criterion in the selection process.

The Congress is apparently lagging behind all other major players in the State as far as the process of selection is concerned. The Congress State election committee was formed only on July 20, the day after party president Sonia Gandhi visited Lucknow.

The committee is yet to hold a meeting. Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Salman Khurshid, however, told UNI that he hopes to send a draft list of the candidates to the party high command by the end of this month. According to him, the Congress has decided not to give tickets to persons with criminal backgrounds.

He said the party is also committed to giving “fair representation to women” while selecting candidates.

Political observers, however, said formal announcements of party candidates even by the BJP and the SP may takeanother fortnight as the filing of nominations in the State will start on August 21. Parties allot symbols just before the last day of the withdrawal of nominations, they pointed out.

For the three-phase poll in the State, to be held on September 17, 24 and October 1, election notifications will be issued separately on August 21, 30 and September 7 respectively.

Of the 85 Lok Sabha seats in the State, 30 go to the polls on September 17, 24 on September 24 and the remaining 31 on October 1.