The Hindu : Mulayam to contest from Mainpuri

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

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National

Mulayam to contest from Mainpuri

By J.P. Shukla

LUCKNOW, MARCH 27. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Mainpuri, according to an additional list of seven Samajwadi Party candidates from Uttar Pradesh announced here today.

The party has nominated Akshay Pratap Singh, a relative of the independent MLA, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, now detained under POTA, to contest the elections from Pratapgarh against the Congress nominee, Ratna Singh.

Releasing the list of the party nominees, the Samajwadi Party general secretary, Amar Singh, said the party had decided not to put up any candidate against the former Prime Minister and Samajwadi Janata Party nominee, Chandra Shekhar, in Ballia. But the nominee against Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli would not be withdrawn as the SP campaign in the constituency had gone much ahead and it was too late.

Mr. Singh said the SP had the impression that Ms. Gandhi would contest the election from Amethi and that was the reason why the party withheld the announcement of its nominee from there. The name of Ashok Singh to contest the elections from Rae Bareli as the SP nominee was, in the meantime, announced and the campaigning started in his favour. While Ashok Singh would continue to remain in the fight, the party would watch the situation in respect of Amethi from where the Congress is fielding Rahul Gandhi.

Division of secular votes

The SP leader held the Congress responsible for the division of secular votes in Uttar Pradesh. On its part his party had made all efforts to arrive at an understanding with the Congress but the latter was more interested in the Bahujan Samaj Party, he charged. It was only after the Congress got a rebuff from the BSP that it started talking of an alliance with the SP. The Congress leaders had, in the meantime, started threatening his party to withdraw their support to the U.P. Government. First it was the senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh, and then Kapil Sibal talked of withdrawal.

While the SP did not want the Congress to withdraw from the ruling alliance in U.P., the decision would ultimately rest with the Congress. He, however, expressed confidence that the withdrawal would have no impact on the stability of the SP-led Government and it would continue to function even without the support of the Congress.

Referring to statements by the leaders of the All-India Milli Council to prevent division of secular votes, Amar Singh said the Council itself in the past had favoured support to the BSP at many places, though after winning elections the party every time made common cause with communal forces.

Amar Singh also announced the list of party candidates from Orissa (5), Andhra Pradesh (6), Gujarat (10), Bihar (17), Jharkhand (6), Uttaranchal (5), Madhya Pradesh (11), Assam (4), Punjab (3), Jammu and Kashmir (3) and Lakshdweep, Arunachal Pradesh and Dadra Nagar Haveli (one each).

The Samajwadi Party so far has declared the names of 68 candidates besides leaving 10 seats for the Rashtriya Lok Dal of Ajit Singh and one for Chandra Shekhar.

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