The Hindu : BJP releases lists for Assembly polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 31, 2003

National

National

BJP releases lists for Assembly polls

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 30. The Bharatiya Janata Party today released its list of 66 candidates for the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, which included the name of the Speaker of the dissolved Assembly, Thakur Gulab Singh, a Congress MLA who has joined the BJP. He has been given the ticket to contest from his old constituency, Joginder Nagar. The candidates were finalised at the central election committee meeting at the Prime Minister's residence on Wednesday.

The newly-appointed party general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, released the list in which 26 of its 34 MLAs have been renominated and eight have been dropped. The Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal, will contest from Bamsan and the State unit president, Jaikrishan Sharma, from Santoshgarh. While 12 Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates have been nominated, only 5 women have been accommodated despite the leadership's promise of giving more representation to women.

With candidates for all but two seats declared, the chapter of talks with Sukh Ram's Himachal Vikas Party is closed.

In Tripura, the party released a list of 15 candidates. Mr. Mahajan said that the BJP was holding talks with the Janata Dal, the Trinamool Congress and the Amar Bangla party and would release the names of other candidates only after seat-sharing was finalised.

In Nagaland, the party has not yet completed its discussions with the Nagaland People's Front. Today, it released the names of 16 candidates. Although it has hardly any presence in the State, it is hopeful of ousting the Congress Government on the strength of "goodwill'' generated by the peace talks and the ceasefire with the NSCN (I-M).

In the fourth State going to polls next month — Meghalaya — the hopes of any arrangement with the Nationalist Congress Party have been dashed, with the NCP keen not to disturb its relations with the Congress in Maharashtra where the two parties are running a coalition Government. "We are on our own in Meghalaya,'' Mr. Mahajan announced while releasing a list of 29 candidates.

The party has also announced its candidates for the byelections, one each in Maharashtra, Assam and Jharkhand and two in Uttar Pradesh — Haidergarh and Gauriganj. It may find itself pitted against its coalition partner, the Bahujan Samaj Party, in Gauriganj but Mr. Mahajan defended the decision to contest saying that the BJP was the "number two'' in the last Assembly elections after the Congress.

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