E-Paper
It?s a do-or-die battle for three stalwarts of UP
The polling in 30 seats in UP and Bundelkhand will be an acid test for Mulayam, Mayawati and Kalyan Singh.
The next phase of polling in 30 Lok Sabha constituencies of central UP and Bundelkhand will be an acid test for Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and Kalyan Singh. It will make or mar their political fortunes.
Already there is much speculation in political circles about the role Mulayam and Mayawati will play in the event of a hung House.
While Mayawati will have to save her party's fiefdom in Bundelkhand, Mulayam's political mettle will be tested in thwarting the BJP's attempts to split the minority vote-bank in the Etawah-Etah belt. As for Kalyan, it is his personal prestige that is at stake, that too within his own party. He has to win seats for the BJP in this area to silence his critics.
In the 1999 polls, Mayawati had bagged the three Bundelkhand Lok Sabha seats of Banda, Jalaun and Hamirpur. In 2002, she won all the five assembly seats in Banda, two each in Hamirpur and Jalaun and one in Jhansi. However, this time she faces a stiff contest from the SP and the BJP.
Mulayam is facing a two-fold challenge.
First, he wants to keep his party's flag flying high in the 'Mulayam belt'. Of the 14 seats he won in 1999, six — Etawah, Kannauj, Farukhabad, Mainpuri, Jalesar and Etah — had come from this area.
The second challenge to Mulayam comes from the propaganda that has been unleashed about his closeness to the NDA. The Prime Minister's appeal to Muslims to vote for the SP and not the Congress is also being viewed as part of the BJP’s desire to help Mulayam win more seats.
BJP leaders feel they have their post-poll insurance in both Mulayam and Mayawati.
To dispel the prevailing notion about his closeness to the BJP, Mulayam and his party have gone belligerent. Now they have launched a campaign to remove all the doubts in the minds of the minority community about their secular credentials.
