BJP rules out post-poll alliance with SP
The BJP has ruled out any post-poll alliance with the SP and accused its leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP's Mayawati of propagating casteism and criminalising politics.
The BJP on Monday ruled out any post-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party and accused its leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP's Mayawati of propagating casteism and criminalising politics.
"We have nothing to do with the Samajwadi Party. Our main fight in UP is with the SP. There will be no alliance with it," BJP President M Venkaih Naidu said.
Naidu, addressing a public meeting, said that Yadav would not even support the Congress as he was opposed to a person of foreign origin occupying the post of the Prime Minister.
"Mulayam and Mayawati have played politics of casteism, criminalisation and appeasement. We do not identify with them," he said.
"This is not an election for Chief Minister but Prime Minister. They (Mayawati and Mulayam) are irrelevant. It is Vajpayee vs who in the opposition camp," he added.
Asked about Vajpayee's comment that his successor has been decided, the BJP President said "successor is not the issue, success is, we will talk about this in 2009."
Later, addressing a rally, Naidu blamed Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her family for the problem of terrorism in Kashmir and Assam, Naxalism in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh and LTTE problem in Tamil Nadu.
"We have not created any problem during the six year rule of the NDA and all problems of poverty, terrorism and unemployment are gifts of the Congress rule," he quipped.
Predicting that NDA will get at least 300 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, Naidu said the mayhem created by exit polls in the stock market have convinced the people of the need for giving BJP and NDA a clear mandate.
"After exit polls predicted a hung Parliament, Rs 50,000 crore were lost in stock markets. This was just a trailer. People have realised what a hung Parliament can do," he said, adding six Prime Ministerial candidates have sprung up during the past five days.
Sharad Pawar, Mulayam, Laloo and Sonia amongst others are all lined up for the PM's post in an opposition coalition which is yet to take shape, he remarked.
In a bid to gather Muslim support in this constituency which has around 42 per cent voters of the community, Naidu said the BJP-led NDA alliance has a definite agenda for the uplift of minorities.
"Unlike Congress and SP we do not intend to use Muslims as vote bank but provide them education, social uplift and jobs," he said.
Rs 220 crore Haj subsidy, computer education in madrasas and Urdu teachers in schools were provided for, he said while showcasing Shahnawaz Husain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who during the Vajpayee government got the posts of cabinet minister and party spokesperson respectively.
Sikander Bakht and Mohammed Fazal were made Governors of Kerala and Maharashtra respectively showing that the BJP wanted to take all communities together, he said.
This election was being fought on three issues-- leadership, development and stability, he added.
"In Vajpayee, we have a leader of good character, capability, conduct, calibre and capacity. We are a party whose development agenda is most attractive, credible and is backed by five years of performance", Naidu said.
"We are the only party which can give stability. Congress led coalition is not clear bout who their leader is", he said.
Congress has accepted coalition out of compulsion, he said pointing towards the fact that Congress and the communist parties were contesting election in West Bengal and Kerala against each other.
This reflects on how strong their coalition is, he said.
BJP has fielded Rajendra Kumar Sharma from Rampur constituency. Sharma has the distinction for having been the only non-Muslim ever to have won from this seat but that was 13 years ago.
Except for 1991, when Sharma defeated Zulfikar Khan (Cong), Rampur has sent only Muslim candidates to Lok Sabha. With Nawabs siding with Congress, Rampur has been one of its bastions for ages. BJP won this seat for only the second time in 1998 when Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, one of its current spokesperson defeated Begum Noor Bano of the Congress by less than 5000 votes.
Noor Bano extracted her revenge in 1999 when she defeated Naqvi by 1.15 lakh votes and now trying to retain the seat, is locked in a tough battle with filmstar of yore, Jaya Prada who is contesting on an SP ticket .
So this time the fight is not between Congress and BJP, which some feel may even be relegated to the fourth position. BSP has made the contest between Congress and Samajwadi Party murkier by fielding former Congressman Afroz Ali Khan.