Reflecting fissures in the party leadership over entering into electoral alliance with National Democratic Alliance partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party Monday said it would contest all 403 seats in the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
The state unit of the BJP would like to contest all 403 seats, senior BJP leader and former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh told reporters. Singh scotched speculation that the BJP national leadership was open to electoral tie up with its NDA partners and some regional parties for the assembly polls in UP and said the state unit was not interested in electoral alliance with any political party.
In his usual cryptic manner, Singh said any alliance with the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress was unlikely, but a tie up with any other party, if at all, has to be decided by the party's central leadership.
Reteirating the saffron party's stand on the potential profile of its candidates for the assembly polls, he said that the party would give tickets to those candidates who would meet the criteria for selection -- winnability, popularity, loyalty and clean image. The former chief minister also claimed that his party did not have a single MP/MLA with a criminal background.
Referring to the party's poll plank, he said the law and order situation, power generation, employment, farmers issues, price rise and internal security would figure in the manifesto.
