Mayawati keeps alliance options open for now

Party releases manifesto, 75 names for UP

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati today released a list of 75 candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections from Uttar Pradesh offering more representation to Muslims.

Mayawati has also decided to penalise the Congress for not withdrawing its support from the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in UP by categorically rejecting any possibility of an electoral alliance with the party.

"The Congress has committed the sin of supporting Mulayam Singh Yadav government propped by the communal BJP," Mayawati said while addressing a press-conference today.

Mayawati, who was the Chief Minister of UP thrice, showed her political acumen when she declined to comment about the possibility of post-poll alliances.

"I shall do whatever suits the Bahujan Samaj," she said while maintaining a studied ambiguity on the post-poll scenario and keeping her options open.

Significantly, in the BSP's first list, Mayawati has not selected the candidate for Lucknow, the Lok Sabha seat of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"I may put up a strong candidate against the Prime Minister," she said. She, however, maintained that she was never approached for putting up a joint candidate against the Prime Minister.

She also have not announced her own candidature from any seat. The other constituencies where the party has finalised its candidates include: Hapur, Agra, Akbarpur and Bahraich.

That Mayawati has taken a strong stand against Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Congress is a welcome news for the BJP which is eager to cultivate her for the post-poll scenario.

Mayawati, however, vehemently denied that her decision to go alone in the elections was guided by her implication in the Taj corridor controversy.

"Those who talk about the possibility of a BSP-Congress alliance are wrong," a confident Mayawati said after releasing the party manifesto for the first time in the political history of the BSP.

In the past, Mayawati's predecessor and the founder of the BSP, Kanshi Ram, had always emphasised the irrelevance of a manifesto and described the Indian Constitution as the guide for the party.

But Mayawati has opted to differ this time and released a 26-page manifesto which promises to bring an end to social inequality and economic disparity and extensively quoted BR Ambekar's observations to drive home her point.

Apparently, the document is full of rhetorics aimed primarily at the Muslims and Dalits.

But what is particularly signficant is Mayawati's decision to give 17 tickets to Muslims in the first list of candidates in UP.

Mayawati has tactically placed Muslim candidates in constituencies where the Dalit-Muslim combine can enable the party to emerge a formidable force.

For instance, constituencies like Amroha, Rampur, Shahabad, Bareilly, Kaiserganj and Balrampur, the BSP's muslim candidates have been carefully selected to eorde the Samajwadi Party's support base.

Similarly, seven upper caste candidates (brahmin and thakurs) will be fielded to create problems for the Congress candidates.

Chandra Prakash Mishra has been fielded from Amethi from where Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be seeking re-elections.

That Mayawati has been careful in cultivating Yadavs is evident in the list which shows two history-sheeters- Ramakant Yadav and Umakant Yadav as candidates Azamgarh and Machlishahar.