'An unsure SP out to create trouble in UP'

New Delhi, Apr 3: Alleging that the ruling Samajwadi Party was ''out to do everything possible to vitiate the atmosphere'' ahead of the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP today appealed to the Election Commission to keep track of the developments specially in the aftermath of violence in Lucknow and Kanpur.

Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu, who is party incharge of the UP elections, said the SP, led by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, was desperate to create problems to hide its own failures.

''Mr Yadav, unsure of support from the people is seeking to gain sympathy by reminding the electorate that he would have to go to jail, if not voted to power. On the other hand, his supporters are stoking tension. The Chief Minister has also been issuing threats to the EC,'' Mr Naidu said.

The EC should deploy forces to crush violence for ensuring free and fair polling in the country's biggest state, he added.

He also appealed to the Commission to keep a watch on the ''blatant misuse'' of the official machinery, specially Doordarshan, by the Congress. He said though the party was merely a ''fringe player'' in the state, roadshows of Rahul Gandhi were being telecast live by the national broadcaster.

He said the official medium cannot treat ''one family differently'' and asked the Doordarshan to provide ''fair and objective coverage''.

The Congress seemed to suggest that the ''family's commitment' to secularism was bigger than the party itself.

''People have seen this family's commitment to secularism during the 1984 riots in Delhi, when the family scion (Rajiv Gandhi) described the turmoil as a natural happening, saying earth is bound to move when a big tree falls,'' he said.

Mr Naidu also flagged off a mobile theatre unit at BJP headquarters to be deployed for the campaign in UP. The party is using five such units in the seven-phase assembly polls in the state.

UNI