New Delhi |By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent | 02-11-2003
With only a month before Chhattisgarh goes to elections, the state
Chief Minister Ajit Jogi is finding it heavy going.

Coming close on the heels of the Election Commission lambasting him
for violating the model code of conduct, two allies of the Congress
party have now come out in the open against him.

While the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has already entered into a
seat adjustment with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in
Chhattisgarh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced its decision to
contest all 90 seats in the state. This is bound to eat into the
traditional Congress party vote bank.

The NCP shares power with the Congress party in western Maharashtra
whereas the Samajwadi Party came into power in Uttar Pradesh with
crucial support from the Congress in late last August.

Samajwadi Party president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam
Singh Yadav arrived here on Friday night and met those seeking party
nominations in the state yesterday. The party is scheduled to release
its first list of candidates containing 36 names today. The second
and final list will be released towards the end of the process of
filing nominations.

According to Samajwadi sources, the idea is to keep the door open for
Congress leaders who may rebel if denied nominations.

The fate of some 16 Congress party members of the outgoing state
assembly hangs in the balance. They had defected to the Congress
party after the state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000.

There are indications the Congress may deny them nominations. The SP
on the other hand is faced with shortage of good candidates.

To overcome this problem, the party has decided to nominate as
candidates an ex-Naxalite as well as a popular Chhattisgarh filmstar
Kshamanidhi Mishra. The party is looking for candidates who bring
votes on their own popularity rather than depend on Mulayam Singh to
make their lives easier.

"We have a strong organisational base in Chhattisgarh. We have our
units in 16 districts. Although it may be our first venture into
Chhattisgarh, we are confident that the work done by the Yadav
government in Uttar Pradesh during the past two months will attract
voters. We are going to focus on issues like ruling parties ignoring
people in the state," the SP general secretary in-charge for
Chhattisgarh, Ompal Singh Nidar, told Gulf News yesterday.

"It is shameful that even 56 years after independence, there are
villages particularly in the tribal belt where there is no potable
water, no electricity and no job opportunities," Nidar said, adding
that Yadav will extensively campaign in the state for at least two
days, covering as many seats as possible.

Nidar was curt in saying that the Samajwadi Party is not entering the
fray to help any one or damage the other party. "It is for others to
assess; our aim is to win as many seats as possible so as to become a
national party," he said. The Samajwadi Party right now is not
revealing its hand, but it is obvious that if their support becomes
crucial, given their newfound bonhomie with the BJP, the party may
prefer to lend its support to the BJP rather than the Congress.

In any case, the presence of the Samajwadi Party will cut into the
backward caste vote of the Congress in the state.

The NCP on the other hand is clear about its goal of defeating Jogi
at any cost. The two parties have entered into an understanding under
which the BJP will not put up its candidates on 15 out of 18 seats it
has never won. The NCP will also leave aside 15 seats for the BJP,
including Marwahi from where Jogi is likely to seek re-election.

Political observers feel that while the BJP-NCP understanding could
upset calculations of the Congress, together, the NCP and the
Samajwadi Party may mar chances of the Congress party to retain power
in the state, where it is already on a shaky wicket.

Courtesy Gulf News

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=101808