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BJP, SP gain as panic spreads in Congress, BSP

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Come election time, and every party worth its name in Uttar Pradesh begins wooing members of rival groups. But never was the activity as intense as it is this year.

The main victim are the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party, with members dribbling away, usually to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party.

Unlike the past, when the Congress usually took the initiative, this time it is the BJP that set the ball rolling even before the formal announcement of an election, getting 22 MLAs from the Congress, 12 from the BSP and three from the Janata Dal to cross over to the BJP.

By wangling these deals while trying to come to power, the party got rid of its label of untouchability. Soon it was even making room for criminals with long records, shedding its image of a party wedded to traditions and discipline. Even after the Kalyan Singh government seemed securely in power, the party took on Sanjay Singh, a former Congressman who joined first the Janata Dal and then the Samajwadi Party. Singh, scion of the erstwhile princely family of Amethi, was also among the main accused in the murder of Syed Modi, India's badminton champion of the eighties.

Singh, who along with Modi's wife Amita, faced the long trial, and was eventually acquitted by the Supreme Court after a prolonged Central Bureau of Investigation probe.

Sanjay, in political hibernation for a long time after his term in the Rajya Sabha ended, desperately sought some foothold in politics again. And, magnanimously, the BJP provided it, offering to let him contest from Amethi, the bastion of Rajiv Gandhi. Singh happily took on the job since he knew the people of Amethi were disillusioned with their Congress MP and former petroleum minister Satish Sharma, who won only because he was a Rajiv Gandhi nominee. Now that Sonia Gandhi has entered the fray, things could get a little hot for Singh in Amethi.

Soon after Singh's political conversion, a race began between the BJP and the SP to win over leaders, particularly from the Congress and the BSP. The first significant move was that of Allahabad Mayor Rita Bahuguna, daughter of the late chief minister Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, to the Samajwadi Party. She was soon followed by another big name -- Balram Singh Yadav, who after a long feud made up with former political foe Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Balram Yadav, who was UP Congress president in 1987-88, and a minister in the Narasimha Rao government, now vows to "fight communal forces by joining the Samajwadi Party."

Along with Balram Yadav arrived K C Yadav, president of the Manipuri District Congress Committee, Mushfiq Ali Khan, another Manipur Congress leader, and Ajay Pal Yadav, a leader from the Etawah district Congress. There were also a host of Congress workers from the neighbouring Farrukhabad district.

Another SP catch was Vinod Chaudhar, former MLA and president of the UP Youth Congress. Chaudhary even withdrew his Congress nomination for the forthcoming state legislative council election to join the SP.

The UP Congress got another jolt when former party general secretary B P Maurya decided to quit the party. Both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party are trying to win over Maurya, who has some following among the dalits.

Latest to go is D P Yadav, who won the 1996 state assembly election on a BSP ticket, but now also expressed his preference for the BJP. D P Yadav has an unsavoury reputation as a ganglord, but that did not bother Mulayam Singh who also gave him a berth in the SP-BSP coalition ministry when he was in power.

When Mayawati managed to form an government, D P Yadav switched sides to the BSP. Now that the BSP's prospects seem dim, he's back with Mulayam Singh who is trying to get every Yadav and Muslim leader to his side, to consolidate his vote bank.

Interestingly, most party-hoppers in the state have had a bad time at the hustings. Of the 45 who switched loyalties at the eleventh hour in the 1996 election, as many as 39 suffered humiliating defeats.

Prominent among these was Anand Singh, a former ruler of Manakpur in East UP, who snapped his long association with the Congress to join the Samajwadi Party. He lost to Ketki Singh, the wife of BJP leader Brij Bhushan Saran Singh. This despite Brij Bhushan Singh being a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities detenu.

Some others who switched loyalties and were beaten at the last election are Satya Pal Singh Yadav, K C Tyagi, Ram Naresh Kushwaha, Kiran Pal Singh, Rajendra Chaudhary Baleshwar Yadav, Usha Verma, Veerendra Shahi and Mushir Ahmad Lari.

It will now be interesting to see how the current crop of turncoats fare.

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