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Mayawati to speak at Vajpayee's rallies

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI DEC. 8. The Bahujan Samaj Party leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, will be sharing the platform with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his election rallies in Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat tomorrow.

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu, had spoken to Ms. Mayawati to ask for her help in the campaign. She would be present at Mr. Vajpayee's two meetings tomorrow, but would travel to Gujarat separately, the BJP spokesperson, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, said today.

Several of the BJP's allies, including the BSP, are themselves contesting the elections, where they will naturally be in a contest against the Congress and the BJP. A report from Lucknow said that while Ms. Mayawati would ask the people to vote for the BSP candidates in some 30 constituencies where the party is contesting, elsewhere her appeal would be in favour of the BJP. Rather oddly, Ms. Mayawati has so far not campaigned in Gujarat — not even for her own party candidates.

The BJP, which is contesting all the 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat — it refused to share any with NDA allies — is now panicking as senior leaders such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and the Lok Janshakti Party president, Ram Vilas Paswan, have been campaigning effectively for the Congress. Neither the RJD nor the LJP is contesting the Gujarat elections.

The panic in the BJP camp was the result of Mr. Yadav's first election rally in Gujarat on Saturday.

In Ahmedabad, considered a BJP bastion, Mr. Yadav drew loud applause from the crowd when he promised that the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, would be arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act after the BJP was thrown out of power in the State. Mr. Paswan left here for Gujarat today and he will be camping there till December 10, addressing about six meetings each day in and around Mehsana, Saurashtra and Vadodara.

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