Many BCs, but sole Muslim in BJP list

New Delhi, March 14 : Seeking to poach into the backward caste voter base of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party in the coming Uttar Pradesh elections beginning next month, the BJP on Wednesday decided to bank on a high number of backward caste candidates as it announced a list of 316 candidates for the polls.

The party plans to keep aside over 50 seats for its allies, the Janata Dal(U) and Apna Dal.

No effort was made to present a challenge to the Samajwadi Party’s Muslim vote bank as the party decided to field only one Muslim candidate—from Rae Bareli.

It was unanimously decided during a party meeting here that Kalyan Singh would be the chief ministerial candidate, and unlike in the past, his name would be announced before the elections. Tickets will also been given to the party’s UP unit president Kesri Nath Tripathi and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Lalji Tandon.

The big news was the decision to field Pankaj Singh, son of party president Rajnath Singh, from Chiriya village in Chandauli district. However, soon after the meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee, Pankaj told The Indian Express that he had decided not to stand for elections. “I am grateful to my party for selecting me as a candidate, but have decided not to contest. Instead I will devote myself to organisational work. This is my personal decision.”

Party sources said the suggestion to field Pankaj came from the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit and was supported by the party’s top leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani at the meeting of the Central Election Committee. Even though few expected the proposal to be rejected, a BJP leader said that the party’s formal position while endorsing Pankaj’s candidature was that he would help in boosting the electoral prospects of other candidates from the area. Chiriya in eastern Uttar Pradesh falls within the home turf of Rajnath Singh.

Late on Wednesday, following the five-and-a-half hour meeting, it was still unclear whether Pankaj would be persuaded to stand for the elections, especially after he had received the backing of both of Vajpayee and Advani.

Meanwhile, all sitting MLAs—save some defectors—have been accommodated in the party list, said party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Among them were Kalyan Singh’s son Rajbir and his wife.

Party sources said about 35 seats, mostly in eastern Uttar Pradesh and a few in central areas of the state had...

Ads By Google

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.