Date:07/11/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/11/07/stories/2002110705790101.htm

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Samata to go it alone

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI NOV. 6. The Samata Party will go it alone in the coming Assembly elections in Gujarat next month.

Though a BJP ally in the NDA coalition at the Centre, the Samata is distancing itself from the BJP in Gujarat and will contest about 50 out of 182 seats in the State that witnessed riots and violence earlier this year.

"We will have no alliance with the BJP in Gujarat. There will be no common manifesto or programme. We will have our own manifesto and they will have their own," the party spokesman, Shambu Shrivastava, told mediapersons here today.

There was a proposal for seat adjustments with the BJP and the Samata Party chief, George Fernandes, had conveyed it to the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, who sought a week's time to decide upon it.

However, more than a week had passed since then and there had been no communication from the other side, Mr. Shrivastava said. His party had started drafting its election manifesto.