LUCKNOW, Jan 27: The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate, Atal Behari Vajpayee, filed his nomination today amid large-scale revelry comprising a riot of colours and a host of brass bands. The procession accompanying Vajpayee included at least 50 cars, three loud-speaker-fitted trucks blaring the BJP's campaign music and over 3,000 supporters.It took about three hours to cover the three-kilometre distance between the BJP's election office on Sapru Marg and the District Collectorate. Vajpayee filed four sets of nomination papers proposed by state ministers Lalji Tandon, Ejaz Rizvi, Lucknow Mayor S C Rai and local party leader Bhagwati Prasad Shukla. He then addressed the 10,000 strong gathering outside the Collectorate premises, who raised slogans like ``Raj tilak ki karo tayari, aa rahe hain Atal Behari''.``Your presence in large numbers here is indicative of the BJP juggernaut advancing to power at the Centre,'' he said. The BJP stalwart, who has twice been elected to theLucknow Lok Sabha seat, stressed on the party's stand on Muslims. Appealing to the minority community to vote the BJP to power at the Centre, he said: ``We treat Muslims as human beings, not as a vote bank.we want to take them into the national mainstream''.To emphasise his point, he said the Kalyan Singh Government in the State had resolved the long-pending dispute over Azadari procession between Shias and Sunnis in Lucknow.``The BJP Government in the State achieved what other governments could not have done on the religious procession, which was a bone of contention between two Muslim sects since 1977,'' he said in an obvious bid to win the support of Muslims who hold sway in many of the total 85 Lok Sabha seats in the State. Vajpayee pointed out that Uttar Pradesh, owing to its large representation in Parliament, holds the key to the Delhi throne. ``Sixty-five to 70 seats in Uttar Pradesh in favour of the party will pave the way for the BJP government at the Centre,'' he said.
