CHANDIGARH: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections from Chandigarh as an independent party and does not plan a tie-up with the Congress, chief of the local BSP unit, Mata Ram Dhiman announced today. He asserted that his party had been able to garner sufficient support since the last polls and was hopeful that it would fare better at the hustings this time. Dhiman, who contested the last Lok Sabha polls from here, had polled four per cent of the total votes.

CPM reacts

CHENNAI: The CPM's Tamil Nadu unit today described as `absurdly opportunistic' the AIADMK-BJP electoral alliance in the state for the elections and claimed people would reject it. The AIADMK appeared to be `desperate' and had fallen into a trap laid by the BJP, the unit's secretary, N Sankariah, said. He charged the BJP for making a mockery of democracy by its `activities' in Uttar Pradesh. Asked how many seats his party would demand from the DMK front, Sankariah evaded a direct answer but said `we will not stake claim to CPI seats of Nagapattinam and Sivakasi constituencies.

JD view

MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu unit Janata Dal general secretary, John Moses, today described the `BJP-AIADMK' alliance as `shameless and cheap political opportunism'. He alleged that ever since Jayalalitha took control of the AIADMK she had been supporting communal forces.

TN agenda

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu is ready to hold a single-phase polling for the coming Lok Sabha elections, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K A Mathew said today. He told reporters here that the final schedule would be announced by the Election Commission. He said schools were directed to either prepone or postpone their examinations in view of the elections to be held between February 15 and March 15. Mathew said the BSP, CPM, CPI, Janata Dal, Samata Party and BJP were recognised by the Election Commission as national parties, while Congress (Tewari), Pattali Makkal Katchi, Janata Party and the Marumalarchi DMK - were derecognised.

BJD call

NEW DELHI: Samata Party today welcomed the call given by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for anti-Congress forces to join hands in Orissa for the coming Lok Sabha elections. Samata Party spokesman Digvijay Singh told newsmen that the party has agreed to cooperate with BJD. Detailed modalities regarding the alliance or the seat sharing would be decided later on. Asked if BJP would be party to the new front in the state, Singh said ``we would like that BJP was also party to such a grouping.''

JMM-RJD tie-up

JAMSHEDPUR: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Mardi) and the Jharkhand People's Party (JPP) will forge an electoral alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for the coming Lok Sabha elections. JMM (Mardi) president Krishna Mardi said the first round of talks on the issue had already taken place with RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav and the final decision in this regard would be taken soon. He said a meeting was held at the residence of JMM (Mardi) leader Teklal Mahato at Patna on December nine.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.