Unholy alliances made BJP win: Left parties

New Delhi, Nov 12: Citing caste politics and division of secular votes as the reasons for the BJP's ''good performance'' in the recent local body elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Left parties today asked the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime as well as the UPA government at the Centre to draw lessons from the election results and take ''corrective steps'' for the crucial Assembly polls next year.

Rejecting the election outcome as a sign of a ''resurgent'' BJP and a big moral boost for the safforn party, the CPI (M), the CPI, the RSP and the Forward Bloc said it was, however, the result of the ''unholy'' alliances made by certain political forces.

''The outcome is the result of the unholy and undeclared alliances entered into by the BJP,'' CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said.

Endorsing his viewpoint, Party National Secretary Shamim Faizi said it would have been better if the Left and V P Singh's Jan Morcha had contested jointly.

''But the poll outcome cannot be described as a victory or gain for the BJP as a large number of independents also won in the absence of a viable alternative,'' he said.

CPI (M) senior leader M K Pandhe said local as well as national issues affected the poll outcome.

''While the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in UP has not delivered on the development front, the UPA government at the Centre is not fulfilling its commitments made in the CMP,'' he explained.

This, he said, should be taken seriously and a corrective strategy evolved for next year's Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

''The CPI (M) state unit in UP will soon coordinate with all those secular forces opposed to the BJP,'' Mr Pandhe, a member of the CPI (M) Politbureau, said.

He asked Mr Yadav to accommodate all such forces who could jointly prevent the BJP from coming back to power in the Hindi heartland.

RSP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Abani Roy said the state government should have laid more emphasis on the development of infrastucture, mainly roads and power projects, besides providing clean drinking water.

He did not agree with the view that the drubbing of the secular forces at the hustings was the result of the state government's appeasement of the Muslims on the result of the reservation issue which had a deep impact on the minds of the middle classes.

Forward Bloc National Secretary G Devrajan deplored that a big caste polarisation had already taken place in the political life of the Hindi heartland.

Quoting BSP chief Mayawati's widely reported remark that her party votes were transferred to both BJP and Congress, Mr Devrajan said: ''In these polls, there was nothing like the Hindu backlash or the resurgence of the BJP.'' He said the Mulayam Singh Yadav government as well as the UPA government should draw proper lessons from these polls.

''No society can progress without social or economic justice,'' he said.

UNI