BJP seeks people's mandate for
'good governance' in UP

Leaving no scope for any kind of confusion on election eve, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday reiterated the party's decision to seek the people's mandate to form the next Government in Uttar Pradesh under Kalyan Singh on the plank of good governance.

The party ruled out any post-poll alliance with the SP or the BSP.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani and party president Rajnath Singh kick off the electoral campaign by addressing three mega rallies simultaneously on March 25 in Kanpur, Agra and Jhansi respectively. Kalyan Singh would join Vajpayee in Kanpur, where the public meeting would be held at Phool Bagh Ground.

A series of workers conference would also be held also on March 25 in Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Saharnpur, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, and Bareilly. It is a part of the party's multi-pronged strategy to galvanise the cadres at the grassroots level in tune with the seven-phased poll schedule for the State. General secretary Vinay Katiyar and Kalraj Mishra would be stationed in Lucknow to monitor the overall campaign in the State.

The party senior leaders along with their counterparts from UP held a marathon meeting on Friday at the residence of M Venkaiah Naidu to finalise the electoral for the state and issues to be highlighted during campaigning. Vajpayee, Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh among others attended the meeting.

According to a party functionary, Vajpayee and Advani said that there was a positive atmosphere in favour of the BJP in the state and the party workers should work together as a team to wrest power in the state. The duo would address a series of rallies. The other star campaigner would be Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

After the meeting, Naidu said that the BJP would seek the people's mandate to rid the State of prevalent corruption, lawlessness, farmers' suicide, appeasement of minorities, and internal security. "The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party were the party to the Centre's wrong policies, leading to the run-away inflation and other problems. The two parties owe an explanation to the state's people," Naidu said.

Naidu, who would be the party's central electoral management observer in Lucknow, said that the party would not enter into any alliance with the SP or the BSP after the poll. "Which is why, we have asked the people to give us absolute majority," he said.

According to him, all the in-charge of six zones the party has divided the State into would take the charge in two days. Each of them has got a senior RSS functionary to assist them in executing the electoral strategies. The party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad along with OP Dhankar has been given the responsibility of Meerut zone instead of Arun Jaitley, senior general secretary who has been given the task of managing the party's campaigning in Delhi municipal poll.

Gopinath Munde would be assisted by Hridaynath Singh in Gorakhpur, while Arvind Menon has been attached with OP Mathur, general secretary and in-charge of Agra zone. Thawarchand Gehlot, another general secretary, has got Kaptan Singh to monitor campaign in Kanpur, and Ananth Kumar would be based in Varanasi. Harendra Pratap, another RSS pracharak, would assist him.

The BJP has fielded over 130 candidates from among them, followed by nearly 100 candidates from different upper castes. Over 55 Brahmins have been fielded in the contest so far. "The ability to win and clean image have been the main criteria in selecting the candidates," Kalyan Singh said.

About the remaining seats, Naidu said that the Central Election Committee would meet in a day or two decide about the rest of the seats. The BJP is likely to leave out around 52 seats for the Apana Dal and Janata Dal-U in the state. "The final decision about Pankaj Singh, the party's candidate from Chirai, is yet to be taken," Naidu said.