BJP to contest all LS seats in UP : Advani

New Delhi, Jul 5: Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Saturday, July 5, virtually ruled out any understanding with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) when he said his party would contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Asked for his comments regarding the reports that the BJP was going soft on the BSP for future alignments, Mr Advani said though the BSP was contesting polls across the country, its real strength was in UP. ''In this big state, the BJP is contesting all the seats,'' he said. Mr Advani's comments come in the wake of reports speculating that there was serious infighting within the BJP regarding the party's reported move to have an electoral understanding with the BSP after it withdrew support to the UPA government.

Touching upon the issue of withdrawal of land from Amarnath Shrine Board by the Jammu and Kashmir government, Mr Advani said the Congress, which was giving every indication of providing land to the shrine board, had buckled under pressure of the PDP. ''This kind of vote bank politics is divisive and will weaken the country,'' he remarked.

UNI