Front Page
Cong. complains to EC against Amitabh
By Javed M. Ansari
NEW DELHI FEB. 1. The Congress appears to be turning on the heat on the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. A day after the former UPCC chief, Salman Khursheed, lambasted Mulayam Singh Yadav, the party lodged a protest with the Election Commission against the film star Amitabh Bachhan inaugurating blood donation camps inorder to help the SP.
The AICC general secretary, Ambika Soni, today wrote to the CEC alleging that Mr. Bachhan and the SP leaders were using the blood donation camps and the distribution of artificial limbs to gain political mileage. ``These camps are being synchronised with the election campaign and they amount to an offer of allurement to the voters'' she added.
The party, however, hastened to add that it did not have any objections to film stars campaigning for political parties, its objection was to the fact that these camps were being used to allure voters.
The sudden change of tack on the part of the Congress is being viewed with surprise in political circles. After a prolonged period of bitterness, the two parties had showed signs of warming upto each other in the run-up the Assembly elections. It had also raised visions of a post-election tie-up between two parties.
The growing proximity between the two parties was frowned upon by a section of the UPCC which felt that it would send a wrong signal to the ``upper castes'' in the State which were disillusioned with the BJP and entertaining the idea of gravitating to the Congress. The latest Congress move is being viewed in political circles as an attempt to correct the public impression and send a favourable signal to the ``upper castes'' in the State.
Senior party leaders, however, suggested informally that Mr. Khursheed's outburst against the SP chief was more a reflection of his personal view than that of his party.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Front Page
|
