Cong will play role of kingmaker in UP: Jaiswal

Kota, Apr 20 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections would throw up surprising results with the Congress playing the role of a kingmaker in the most populous state of the country.

Mr Jaiswal, while talking to newsmen here, ruled out any truck with Mulayam Singh-led Samajwadi Party and Bharatiya Janata Party and said the Congress may get into an understanding with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party in the post poll scenario.

Talking about Naxal movement, the Minister said while Andhra Pradesh and North-Eastern states had made headway in reigning in movement, Chhattisgarh could not make much progress.

He said the Central government was extending all possible help to Chhattisgarh to tackle Naxalism. He said, ''the Central government has made available 150 armed battalions to fight the menace of naxalism in that state.'' Mr Jaiswal said the menance of naxalism could be fought permanently with development.''Development and not force could offer a permanent solution to the menace of Naxalism,'' the Minister noted.

He said though police and law and order were 'state subjects,' the central government was bearing fifty per cent cost of modernisation of the state police force.

UNI