RLD positive about poll ties with Cong in UP

New Delhi, Sep 27: Rashtriya Lok Dal(RLD) president Ajit Singh, the estranged coalition partner of the Mulayam Singh Government in Uttar Pradesh, has clearly indicated his preference for an alliance with the Congress in the coming Assembly elections.

All major political parties in the state--SP, BSP, Congress, BJP and the RLD have already started preparing for next year's Assembly elections, holding rallies in various parts of the state.

Mr Singh, whose political battle is focussed on the division of the 'unweildy state' lambasts the Samajwadi Party for its opposition to creation of smaller states out of Uttar Pradesh, and also for its multiple failures on other fronts, while recognising that the Congress was ready for a second reorganisation of the state.

He says no political alignments had been finalised for the coming polls, but he would like to have a pre-election alliance, adding that last time he had to go to Mulayam after the elections only to prevent the BSP and the BJP from coming into power.

This time Mr Singh ruled out any poll ties with the SP. There was no question of any alliance with the BSP or BJP too, and no other party was in an organisational position to win some respectable number of seats, he said, leaving by implication only the Congress as the most possible poll ally in the situation prevailing.

When explicitly asked about such an alliance, he said he was open to the idea.

Mr Singh, son of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, who has his political base among the farmers of Western Uttar Pradesh from where his party has 16 MLAs in the present Assembly, felt very happy with the response to his rallies in eastern UP held last week. But, he said, there was no doubt that the coming Assembly elections would result in a hung Assembly.

''And that would not be surprising, as Uttar Pradesh in its present size and with its various regions facing different kind of problems which no one party was now in a position to take care of has become unweildy-- a state of affairs that ultimately gets refelcted in the election results too,'' he told UNI.

''People now well understand the kind of socialism the Samajwadi was practicing; the classes that supported the BSP have also begun to see how much the party was concerned to take care of their interests, and as far as the BJP was concerned, its politics of religion and temple has long been exposed to the voters. In such a situation, there was bound to be a fractured mandate,'' he said.

So stability will continue to elude Uttar Pradesh unless it was divided into smaller states, he added.

Mr Singh, who champions the cause of creation of a 'Harit Pradesh' carving out of western districts of the state, and also talks of creation of more states out of the parent state, lambasts Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's Opposition to it, saying it was a clear case of double standards. ''If they can concede a hill state of Uttaranchal, then why not further division of the state,'' he said.

The Western UP leader, who has already launched his party's election campaign in the state, has clearly indicated that his relations with Mr Yadav's Samajwadi Party were over over issue of division of the state among and so many other things.

Mr Singh said his most fierce disagreement with the ruling Party in Uttar Pradesh was with the way land acquisition was being done in the state. ''Prime agricultural land is being taken from farmers for a paltry compensation, and then given to private industrial houses to develop luxury apartments for the rich, which was unacceptable,''.

''You acquire such a land only for some pressing public utility out of compulsion, but how are these super-luxury apratments going to serve the commonman,'' he said.

The land acquisition rules in Uttar Pradesh neded to changed, he demanded.

He also lambasted the agricultural credit policy of the government, saying only 50 per cent of the needy farmers were getting institutional loans, and the rest have to depend on local money lender.

Mr Singh also came down heavily on the government for the total collapse of the Public Distribution System, lack of power and diesel and increasing unemployment, weavers plight.

''There is no leader to raise these issues in the state,'' he said.

Though caste considerations would also prevail, but the coming elections in the state would be fought mainly on the issue of development, he said.

''After touring the state recently, I have come to a definite conclusion that the commonman in the state wants change,'' he said.

UNI