Looking for allies, UP Cong spots BSP

In the season of alliances in the Congress, the party seems to be looking at one party in a new light in Uttar Pradesh. And incredible as it...

In the season of alliances in the Congress, the party seems to be looking at one party in a new light in Uttar Pradesh. And incredible as it may sound, that party is CM Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party.

With compulsions at the ground making tie-ups a necessity, the party realises that between the BSP and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP), the former is a lesser evil.

Tiwari promises OBC status to Gorkha community

DEHRA DUN: Uttaranchal Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari has promised to give Other Backward Caste (OBC) status to Gorkha community in the state. He made the announcement at a meeting with a delegation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders who had demanded reservation for the community in the state.

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The delegation led by Uttaranchal state president Suryakant Dhasmana comprised members of the Gorkhali Sudhar Sabha, a representative body of the community in the state.

Tiwari promised that all the formalities for grant of OBC status would be completed within a month after approval from the state Cabinet. There are more than five lakh Gorkhas spread all over Uttaranchal comprising seven per cent of the total population of the state. The state has already provided 14 per cent reservation in government jobs for OBCs. (ENS)

Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh admits this. ‘‘There appears no possibility of a pre-poll alliance with any party in the state, but when we are close to power in New Delhi, the other outfits will gravitate towards us and in that scenario, the BSP will be a better choice than the SP because of its previous track record.’’

Chief of the Congress’s women cell in UP Lalti Devi sees it as choosing the lesser of the two evils. ‘‘The SP has always ditched the party at the time of need, blocking chances of Sonia Gandhi becoming the PM and also taking an opposite line on the issue of women’s reservation Bill.’’

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The Congress is also taking heart from Mayawati’s recent statements accusing the BJP Government at the Centre of not creating employment opportunities in the state and also neglecting development jobs there. ‘‘Real development will be ensured to the people, especially the downtrodden, when the BSP has total command on governance at the Centre,’’ she is telling people while holding impromptu public meetings after surprise checks in different districts. The BJP-BSP relations are already strained and the Congress realises it won’t take much for them to snap.

‘‘This is for the party high command to decide but in our view, the BSP is better than the SP for any pre- or post-poll arrangement,’’ says Babloo, a Congress leader.

Even the Opposition realises the possibility of this. CPI general secretary Atul Kumar Anjan feels things will move after the coming assembly elections in four states. ‘‘If both the Congress and the BJP don’t get absolute majority, the chances of forming a government with the support of the BSP, especially in Madhya Pradesh, will be greater and this will turn the course of the present polity.’’

A cornered BJP has started making conciliatory noises towards the BSP. ‘‘Our coalition is running smoothly and we will contest the Lok Sabha polls jointly,’’ says party state in-charge Kalraj Mishra. At the same time, he refutes Mayawati’s allegation against the Centre on the issue of jobs, saying she should first look at the real statistics.