Atal asks Centre to ''intervene'' in UP

Lucknow, Dec 24 (UNI) Castigating Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for ''harbouring'' Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today said the state was the fittest case for the ''Centre's intervention.'' ''Law and order in UP has reached to an absymally low level and the BJP strongly demands Centre's intervention ahead of assembly polls in the state,'' the veteran leader said, addressing the BJP's Parivartan Rally (Rally for change) here.

He said there was no possibility of fair and free assembly polls under SP-led government in the state and ''some viable alternative'' had to be reached before that.

Contending that the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led SP and the Congress ''complemented each other,'' he said though the latter party was crying hoarse about the rampant crime scenario in UP but at the same time it was not taking any action.

Exhorting his partymen to grab the opportunity to regain power in the state as the situation was heavily tilted in their favour, he said that the recent success in civic polls had proved the people of the state were fed up with the SP-led government, ''There was a visible wave of change in the state and BJP filled the slot to the perfection,'' he said.

Describing the situation in UP as 'horrendous', Mr Vajpayee said that it was the both the opportunity and duty of the BJP to rid people of the state of this appalling state of affairs.

''The three-year regime of Mulayam Singh Yadav was marked by the steep rise in crime graph with as many as 1,900 murders, 3,930 rapes, 5,800 kidnappings and over seventy thousand cases of loot and dacoity reported during this period,'' he noted.

He also appealed to the Muslims to support the party for a 'change for good'.

''BJP has always pursued the agenda of nationalism and not the politics of religion and caste,'' he said.

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