Only lotus can attract votes, says Kalyan

Brushing off the LCP’s demand to contest from 15 out of a total of 85 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Kalyan hoped to win 65-70 seats.

"We are trying to find strong candidates for each of the 85 seats. The ability to win has to be the sole criterion for selection of candidates," he said.

The Chief Minister also hoped to win at least 23 of the 39 Vidhan Parishad seats, for which members of the local bodies are the voters, on December 29. "Elections to the local bodies were held during Mulayam Singh Yadav’s chief ministership amid complaints of large-scale irregularities. Even if we win 20 seats, we would improve our past performance seven-fold," he said, referring to the three seats won by the party in the 1990 polls.

Defending his decision to issue grants worth Rs 255 crore to the local bodies just five days before the Vidhan Parishad polls, Kalyan said elections did not mean keeping the government in suspended animation. "Welfare schemes cannot be held back only due to elections," he remarked.

The Chief Minister candidly admitted that the announcement was aimed at wooing voters. "No sane government would announce a scheme which can detract voters," he said, adding he had not committed any impropriety by issuing hefty grants to the local bodies.

Claiming that there was no resentment in his council of ministers over distribution of work, Kalyan said his was a cohesive government though it comprised four groups of different cultures: BJP, LCP, Janata Dal (R) and Bahujan Samaj Party (rebels).

He admitted that his party had initiated talks with JD rebel MP Maneka Gandhi for contesting either on a BJP ticket or with the BJP’s help from Pilibhit but nothing conclusive had emerged. Similarly, his party was searching for strong candidates to be fielded against opposition heavyweights like Chandra Shekhar (Ballia), Ratna Singh (Pratapgarh), Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri), Capt Satish Sharma (Amethi) and Kanshi Ram (Phoolpur).

Ruling out the possibility of his cabinet members being fielded in the Lok Sabha polls, the chief minister claimed it did not mean that the ministers were shying away from polls. "It is not their decision but our party’s decision," he said, adding that there might be exceptions.

Kalyan Singh based his optimism for better performance on three issues: the BJP’s ability to provide a strong, stable and accountable government; presence of an honest and sincere man and a visionary like Atal Behari Vajpayee as its prime ministerial candidate and the party’s capability to provide a good and efficient government which can deliver the goods.

Asked whether the BJP was deliberately downplaying the Ram temple issue, Kalyan said the party need not to take up the issue since the Opposition would surely rake it up, thereby benefitting his party.

Kalyan, however, refused to categorically reply to the question whether the BJP would honour its commitment to construct a Ram temple if his party formed a government at the Centre. "We will give an answer only after our government is formed," he said.